Vol 15 no 6 may 2016 by ijlter.org

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p-ISSN: 1694-2493 e-ISSN: 1694-2116

International Journal of Learning, Teaching And Educational Research

Vol.15 No.6

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

The International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research is an open-access journal which has been established for the disChief Editor Dr. Antonio Silva Sprock, Universidad Central de semination of state-of-the-art knowledge in the Venezuela, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of field of education, learning and teaching. IJLTER welcomes research articles from academics, edEditorial Board ucators, teachers, trainers and other practitionProf. Cecilia Junio Sabio ers on all aspects of education to publish high Prof. Judith Serah K. Achoka quality peer-reviewed papers. Papers for publiProf. Mojeed Kolawole Akinsola Dr Jonathan Glazzard cation in the International Journal of Learning, Dr Marius Costel Esi Teaching and Educational Research are selected Dr Katarzyna Peoples through precise peer-review to ensure quality, Dr Christopher David Thompson originality, appropriateness, significance and Dr Arif Sikander readability. Authors are solicited to contribute Dr Jelena Zascerinska to this journal by submitting articles that illusDr Gabor Kiss trate research results, projects, original surveys Dr Trish Julie Rooney Dr Esteban Vázquez-Cano and case studies that describe significant adDr Barry Chametzky vances in the fields of education, training, eDr Giorgio Poletti learning, etc. Authors are invited to submit paDr Chi Man Tsui pers to this journal through the ONLINE submisDr Alexander Franco sion system. Submissions must be original and Dr Habil Beata Stachowiak should not have been published previously or Dr Afsaneh Sharif be under consideration for publication while Dr Ronel Callaghan Dr Haim Shaked being evaluated by IJLTER. Dr Edith Uzoma Umeh Dr Amel Thafer Alshehry Dr Gail Dianna Caruth Dr Menelaos Emmanouel Sarris Dr Anabelie Villa Valdez Dr Özcan Özyurt Assistant Professor Dr Selma Kara Associate Professor Dr Habila Elisha Zuya

VOLUME 15

NUMBER 6

May 2016

Table of Contents The Socratic Method Reloaded: a Rereading to Improve a Technologically Sound Education ................................... 1 Rogerio L. Roth Documentary Film: The Next Step in Qualitative Research to Illuminate Issues of Social Justice in Urban Education ............................................................................................................................................................................... 33 Jennifer Friend and Loyce Caruthers Teachers’ Professional Knowledge: The case of Variability ............................................................................................ 48 Sylvain Vermette Can the Clubs finally „lift the rock‟? Assessing the Sustainability of Reform in Greek Education System ............ 61 Konstantinos Karampelas Legal Aspects in the Collaborative Production of Open Digital Resources ................................................................. 78 Everton Knihs, Nizam Omar and Ismar Frango Silveira Paparazzi and Self-Awareness: Reflective Practice Using Digital Technology ............................................................ 93 Catherine Caldwell, Heljä Antola Crowe and Robert Davison Avilés Examining the Effect of Playing an Arithmeticbased Game- “Chopsticks” on the Arithmetical Competencies of 5year-old Children in Singapore ......................................................................................................................................... 102 Marcruz Yew.Lee. Ong and Manabu Kawata, PhD Modelling in Vietnamese School Mathematics ............................................................................................................... 114 Danh Nam Nguyen Negotiating Accountability and Integrated Curriculum from a Global Perspective ................................................ 127 Susan M. Drake and Michael J. Savage Perceptions of Teacher Counsellors on Assessment of Guidance and Counselling in Secondary Schools ........... 145 Bakadzi Moeti The Effects of an Engineering Design Module on Student Learning in a Middle School Science Classroom ....... 156 Nigel Standish, Rhonda Christensen, Gerald Knezek, Willy Kjellstrom and Eric Bredder

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 1-32, May 2016.

The Socratic Method Reloaded: a Rereading to Improve a Technologically Sound Education Rogerio L. Roth Ca' Foscari University of Venice Venice, Italy

Abstract. If on one hand the ubiquity of the internet allowed the invasion of our privacy, also created a plethora of learning and work opportunities. This is how the Khan Academy got started, to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. However, the involvement of customers could be stimulated through a provocative method, known as Socratic, which reflects how human cognition has been developed. Certainly is necessary a rereading, a recycling to adapt it to the needs and current technological possibilities that, so inexorable, refers to the omnipresence of videos and videoconferencing and without which all systems related to digital educational technology remain indifferent to stakeholders. Keywords: discrimination, e-resources, paradox, recycling, rereading, socratic method

Lessons from the past, eventually a bonus for the future Even the didactic and technological solutions that we can consider correct and brought us to the present day will not necessarily be the same that will lead our education to the future. More important than trying to develop a new approach, method or solution would be to use effectively of everything that already available, mostly free of charge, even developed by others… Regardless of the various developments and setbacks, we must always learn lessons from the past, at least to avoid repeating the same mistakes – even though committed by others. This paper is related to an eponymous chapter and draws on findings from upto-date research “Building an Immersive Distance Learning Experience beyond Massive Open Online Courses with Web Conferencing, Socratic Method, Problem-Based Learning and Social Networks” funded by CAPES Foundation. The project was developed and submitted to the funding agency in 2013 and began in March 2014. However, Riffel (2014) published an article with a partially similar name, exploring the “Reloaded”. This is not about reference, just coincidence. © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

The different inspiration may even have been commonplace, but it is explicit: The Matrix Reloaded, a Silver and Wachowski production (2003a), sequence of The Matrix (Silver & Wachowski, 1999), where the virtual reality system had been reloaded (rebooted) in a less perfect way. At the same time, the film served as a passage for a continuation, a revolution: The Matrix Revolutions (Silver & Wachowski, 2003b), that completed the trilogy of films. Far from this pretension – that this text becomes a rite of passage, watershed or even lead to any revolution in education – we seek only an update, a simple evolution or even rereading – depending on the approach – not necessarily of less perfect form, but that allows for a better use of all that now we have access, often free of charge – and that, nor for this, we use... Previously, Gregory (Rebane, 2013) in a criticism, defends the “sage on the stage” claiming that giving up the traditional teacher's role as the “purveyors of knowledge” would be the same as the Socratic method reinvented, something “with no Socrates needed or expected in the classroom”... This is one absurd statement, from any viewpoint used to analyze the issue. Hypothetically, Socrates never played the role of the “sage on the stage” – on the contrary – and the school, in all its levels, should be a space in constant transformation and not defined lines, which remain unchanged. Socrates left no written record of his own philosophy. Deliberately, not bequeathed his own texts for posterity, similarly to what would have happened with Jesus Christ and his apostles; or even Buddha. What we think we know about Socrates are just reflections provided by different mirrors: those who consider themselves disciples and those who provide testimonies, with and without temporal relationship; the detractors, equally close or far apart in the timeline, as well as very few signs and relics. Nothing more than footprints of others... Our gods never wrote anything, which does not prevent that pseudorepresentatives continually evoke the “word of god” (Ancient Aliens, 2008) or, as in this case, the words of Socrates. “Perhaps we will discover the answer when we open our eyes to the possibility that what we think we know is an illusion, and what we think is illusion may very well be real” (Burns, 2013). According to Moraes (2010), Socrates preferred the thinking in-group than the solitary reflection, the dialogue than the writing. In this way, he can always be considered as an actor whose historic facet appears shrouded in cloudiness, characteristic of everything we think we perceive from a remote past. The main sources from ancient Greece would come through three different views: the satirical and iconoclastic portrait of the comedy the Clouds (The Clouds, 2001; The Clouds, 2002), directed against the sophists, that the author, Aristophanes, confuses with Socrates – because this is the most prominent philosopher at the time; the idealized and elegiac vision in the works: Memorabilia (Memorabilia, 2005; The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates, 2006), © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Apology (The Apology, 1998; Apology, 2005), Symposium (The Symposium by Xenophon, 1998; Symposium, 2005) and Oeconomicus (The Economist by Xenophon, 1998; Oeconomicus, 2005), all of Xenophon – historian, soldier, mercenary and disciple of Socrates; and the numerous dialogues of Plato (Hare, 2010), other disciple, which feature Socrates as the protagonist – although it is questionable whether these texts represent the true thoughts of Socrates, just reflections of Plato's thoughts or even a fantastic piece of his imagination (Burande, 2015). Some authors (Glenn, 1995; Jarratt & Ong, 1995) believe that Aspasia would have invented the method, because she would have been mentioned by Socrates as being one of the most important people to guide him in his philosophical and intellectual development, especially in the art of rhetoric (Pownall, 2003). Both in the past as well as present times, absolutely nothing can be considered as absolute truth, definitive or even accepted by everyone without questions, controversies and discussions. Do not agree or disagree is part of human nature and it is exactly this method that we find developed in the Plato's Socratic dialogues (Hare, 2010) – where the truth is born of discussion and not from a former truth stated, created, manipulated or even forged. Nowadays, when we delude ourselves that we are no longer in times of inquisition, we should all have the right to freedom of thought, association and ideas among others. But try to expose yourself beyond what is permissible, go against the dominant doctrine, reveal criminal actions committed by the socalled democratic countries or even challenge some created truths – without any credible proof to back them up – in some countries, even some considered modern and developed, such as Germany, whose prisons are full of teachers, researchers, scholars, historians and even elderly – languishing for not accepting the absurd official version of rewriting history that was imposed on them “without evidence” through a gag law (Hall, 2015). “The past is erased, the erasure forgotten. A lie becomes truth and then becomes a lie again”… …”The past is forbidden” (Perry & Radford, 1984). A country that has no freedom of expression (or we could say of thought – as if that could be controlled), enjoy no freedom at all... In the opinion of Malcolm X (1963), “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it”. We live in a world of rules and regulations, controlled by certain groups, institutions, organisms and governments; where any alternative means that arise, aiming the protection and the anonymity of the common users – like Tor, Bitcoin and Deep Web – will always be questioned and discriminated against negatively, with the explicit intent to discredit and criminalize them mainly to connect them with aspects that are considered drawbacks, depending on the point of view (Bowyer, 2013). The internet, whether it is open or protected, will always be a reflection of the world we live in: multifaceted, complex and imperfect, with good and bad aspects.

When some governments use the same means to perform some operations considered illegal, nothing happens – especially if the country is part of the United Nations (UN) Security Council. But when groups or individuals make denunciations of infractions from these same countries – in a public or anonymous way – or use similar procedures and technologies, they are persecuted and often crucified. Even when these arbitrary acts are condemned by an expert panel from OHCHR (2016). The UN and all its appendixes were structures created in the post-Second World War, only for others... The cases of Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), Edward Snowden (CIA/NSA), Ross Ulbricht (Silk Road), Kim Dotcom (Megaupload/MEGA) and Shawn Fanning (Napster) are totally distinct, but exemplary – when the system feels threatened and tries to crush anyone who acts outside of the dominant order. Moreover, the biggest surprise for the unbelievers seems to be the technological simplicity of surveillance techniques of the governments. For Alex Winter – Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and the Silk Road – “In the digital age, our privacy can no longer be ignored. …You can no longer throw out the ridiculous axiom that „if I have nothing to hide, I have nothing to fear‟” (Wong, 2015). We live not only in a post-Snowden era, but also mainly in an era post-Sony attack. There are several parallels between the shutdowns of Napster, Megaupload and the Silk Road – when arise several similar services: “Once it‟s decentralized, it‟s game over”. Revolutions in the real or virtual world are always seen as a risk to the dominant system. They could be seen – not just in a very optimistic rhetoric – as an opportunity, but usually this is not the case. This is no exception neither in the education sector. Currently, what we imagine they can revolutions in the area of education (Klein, 2011; Konnikova, 2014; Dasgupta, 2015), with rare exceptions, are only individual proposals or from small groups that do not evolve towards a consensus – are not discussed, are not adopted, are not practiced, are not successful – and, when they do, they earn this status through other merits or reasons, apart from the fact that some pedagogical procedure have really been revolutionized or even evolved. These possible success cases, which apparently defy the current structure, normally do not develop in universities and, in this way, are not linked to the status quo, nor the traditional sale of knowledge held by public and private institutions – although that eventually also practice the sales knowledge. Currently are initiatives created under the internet infrastructure, strongly supported in the use of videos and videoconferencing, using as a marketing argument and methodological approaches the possible gratuity, the timesavings and the reducing of study period. If a picture may be worth a thousand words, when we join several images in a sequence with words, making a video, we will always be the best of both worlds (Roth, 2014). © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

The intensive use of videos and videoconferencing can be considered a trend to be followed by educational institutions; valuable resource to be replicated and an important differential of the outdated support systems education based only on Learning Management System (LMS) – characteristic of an education that is not involved with students, whether it is practiced face-to-face, blended or totally by distance. However, seen in isolation, without a context of use, production logic, interesting content production (carried out in a professional manner); and specific combined methodologies – as the Socratic method and the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) – is still far from being considered as disruptive innovation. Being initiatives competitors to the established structures and still dominant are not linked or even related to the practiced and illusory monopoly of higher education (Carey, 2012; Ellsberg, 2012), idea created, maintained and erroneously perpetuated by universities and similar institutions, that insist or even still delude themselves that they are in control... In the past, universities were seen as a possibility to obtain and guarantee a job for many years, or for life (Ellsberg, 2012). These days, a large portion of people that can complete a higher education course surely never going to use the same, not even work in the target area. (Crotty, 2013; Ellis, 2013). The continuous training and the lifelong learning are becoming an increasingly common feature – concepts that should be applied indiscriminately to all of us, even to those who deceive themselves that only teach. If on the one hand the ubiquity of the internet allowed the invasion of our privacy (Rich & Smith, 2007), also created a plethora of learning and work opportunities. This is how Salman Khan created the Khan Academy (2006), with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. This non-profit venture – as they should be all initiatives related to education – is described by some (Okabe, 2014) as a teaching model, while sharing their free classes through videos. For free. For everyone. Forever. The Veja magazine (Weinberg, 2012) – always trying to kid ourselves that there is a better world than we can imagine – in addition to promoting it as a phenomenon, mistakenly crowned him as the “best teacher in the world”, for allegedly making the learning more attractive, satisfactory, interesting, productive and he has taught four million students over the Internet. On the other hand, the Khan Academy has been criticized because Salman Khan would not have training in pedagogy (Danielson & Goldenberg, 2012; Strauss, 2012). This argument was absurd, from any viewpoint used to analyze the issue, but perhaps may help to explain the success – he would not have “learned” how not to do things or even how to do things the wrong way. Steve Jobs (Apple, 1976) has suffered similar criticism. While other technology companies were led by geeks, he was the only in running a business about which he actually knew very little. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in his ability to think outside of established standards. Jobs showed us that, “what I know is less important than how I think” (Crépin, 2012). © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Salman Khan probably is not the best teacher in the world, but this fact does not make any difference and neither should be given any importance or significance. Bill Gates (Microsoft, 1975), for example, never was the best programmer in the world – not even close. He did not invent the BASIC language, did not invent the DOS operating system and not the graphical operating systems. He never completed a university course – in the same way that Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, 2004). This did not prevent him from building one of the largest technology companies or even be ahead among the world's richest people (Forbes, 2016) – a fact that cannot be interpreted as being a discouragement to higher education. However, completing a university course does not mean absolutely nothing in terms of success or even guaranty a secure future. Or someone can still imagine that, even in the 21st century, the road to success is linked to the completion of some graduation course or even the universities? Regarding the United States, this thread is just academic, given that “some of the nation's greatest minds never finished college” (Grassy, Parrish, & Winter, 2016). Being the best in any discipline means first of all fit into a given paradigm, that is, is suitable to certain rules under which we can try to compare the contestants (Ahmed, 2013; HEC, 2008). This never happens in an honest, ethical, reliable, unbiased and transparent manner in the area of education where many resumes are forged, manipulated and constructed without any personal merit. We shared, at the same time, with professors pedagogically and technologically sound; pretentiously modern; and pseudo-educators that replicate methods or ways of trying to teach of the past – without any update, including the materials and books used (Roth, 2015a)... Ferias (2014), for instance, prefers the path of problematization and deconstruction than the finding or even the construction. Rehearses a criticism of differentials, innovative and revolutionary values of Khan methods followed by an unnecessary comparison with Comenius (2006), in whose work Didactica Magna (Great Didactic) would be present the inaugural speeches of modern didactics – the universality, a more effective education (starting from the simplest concepts to get the most comprehensive), the continuous learning (lifelong), the development of logical thinking (rather than simple memorization) as well as the access of poor children and women to school – to, at the end of fourteen pages, to surrender: “...the teaching methods of Khan are a kind of realization of the universalist ideal of Comenius: „teach everything to everyone‟. ... In 2012 this formula is completely feasible and could be expanded: instead of a master to teach hundreds of students, the megalomaniac project of education via the web made possible to teach not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of students”. Unlike alleged by the author, most teachers do not have any didactic. Especially the university level ones, have very little – sometimes none – didacticpedagogical apprenticeship. Rules and principles alone are not sufficient to produce an educator. They do not receive this kind of instruction in the © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

universities, much less in education area courses that should train teachers. They go straight from graduate courses to teaching, without prerequisites, often without prior experience, training or even vocation, as if the teaching skill was implicit in the certificates that accumulate during life (Roth, 2015b). In what kind of serious enterprise – outside the limbo of universities, in “real” life – this is accepted without reservations? What many of them imagine that it could be didactic or even something like this is just replicated behavior from their “masters”: inefficient, ineffective, criticized (mostly by students – that when they become teachers tend to reuse it, in the absence of good references), outdated or even inappropriate (Ribeiro, 2014), not only to the current times. Comenius (2006) criticized this approach since 1649 and at the same time regrets that the good ideas were not always put into practice. Our pseudo intellectual supremacy only inhabits these positions, or better, orbit around (Leite, 2015). Many imagine that they are like the wine and that, with time, become increasingly better (Ramos, 2015). They only delude themselves, because the legend that all wine improves with age is not true. Only 10% of red wines from around the world mature well, against only 5% of whites (Porto, n.d.). Eventually, all wines will turn into vinegar. Naturally, these days, Sal does not produce or present any other video for Khan Academy. In the same way as other technology area entrepreneurs, he found people far more qualified than he to do so (costing much less). Could still be questioned the certification – that our politically incorrect world tends to give infinitely more importance than the knowledge effectively acquired. However, this recurring issue since the establishment of the universities seems to be with a set expiry date. Since many years that areas such as computer science do not have the excellence centered in the universities. IT Certifications, such as AWS, Cisco, Citrix, CompTIA, EC-Council, GIAC, ISACA, ISFCE, Microsoft and MongoDB have a much higher value on the market than university courses in the target area (Roth, 2011). Moreover, the certification of this knowledge is not held by universities, but by private institutions such as the Prometric Testing (1990). After the OCW (OpenCourseWare) and MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) waves, the natural evolution would be the availability of higher-level courses, with certification, totally free of charge and no limit of users. Free and Open Source College Course (FOSCC) or Free/Libre/Open Source College Course (FLOSCC) is an online university course with certification that is at the same time an open course, free of charge, open source and freely accessible by the general public through the web – from anywhere, anytime, using any suitable device. Derived from the acronym FLOSC (Free and Open Source Course or Free/Libre/Open Source Course) that was coined in 2013 for the project COFUNDRAISING “Sustainability and Latest Revenue Models for © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Academic Resources: Facing the New Challenges of Education Economics” (FP7PEOPLE-2013-IEF). This area is a hotbed of development right now. OCW, MOOC and FOSCC/FLOSCC always have production and maintenance costs and this variable remains a research issue because both the Khan Academy as Coursera and edX universities have not yet found a suitable model of sustainability. Another case that has also carved out an individual space and seeks differentiating factors is Myngle (2005) of Marina Tognetti, that presents itself as the leading multi-language global platform for live online language learning, although focused for business professionals. This virtual classroom has resulted in students and teachers participating from over 150 countries, but unlike the Khan Academy, the mYngle is not free of charge – presumably because it has not yet found an alternative way to ensure its sustainability. Certainly it is possible to offer a product, service or even courses – including at tertiary level – at no cost to the end user, by obtaining other funding sources that do not depend on the payment of study fees or public funds. Google and Khan Academy have taught us this lesson... Wauters (2009) points out some similar proposals. The one offered by Babbel (2000) is similar and also paid. Others present themselves as social networks for learning languages. Like the case of WizIQ (2005), italki (2006), LiveMocha (2007) and Busuu (2007), all with free basic services and premium paid options. The eduFire (2007) was acquired by Camelbak Education Group in 2010 and is offline. And the VoxSwap (2007), only option totally free of charge, is with the domain expired since 30 August 2015. The Holland Herald (Latten, 2015) inflight magazine, in a quick interview with Marina Tognetti, claimed: “mYngle is just what you‟ve been waiting for, language lessons that come to you”, after all, Myngle (2009) states that you can learn any language online with the “best private teachers”. Marina, unlike Sal, apparently always selected people who worked for her and by using this argument to be able to count with the “best teachers” also seems to adopt a trend to get a market advantage in contrast to the bad impression that we have all of us – as students – of those deemed as “traditional teachers”… Conversely, it would be a good idea – while professors and researchers – hear the calls of the market, not just marketing, but of our customers – our students – who were born in a different reality, with expectations that normally we do not meet the demands... Serving the business as usual or bending over the absolute and unquestionable truths – including in didactic terms – does not lend support to any personal and professional growth. Does not add any new experience, even for those who delude themselves that they teach much less for those who we intend to educate.

Aldous Huxley (2004) wrote in 1932 that, the “experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him”. So, if we were not welcomed with a contemporary vision of education (as learners), it does not seem fair to penalize our students by replicating the old ways of teaching. All educators should position themselves critically in relation to the model through which they were “trained” and not repeat the same mistakes – without experiencing fear for having transgressed a trend.

We do not need to reinvent the Socratic method, not even give up who embodies the role of Socrates, intentionally or not. This is not an act of apostasy, but certainly is necessary a rereading, a recycling to adapt it to the needs and current technological possibilities that, so inexorable, refers to the omnipresence of videos and videoconferencing – and without which all systems related to digital educational technology remain indifferent to stakeholders, always representing an education not involved with students…

The Socratic method, elenchus or dialectical: of the debate, of irony and of maieutics This model, popularized as the Socratic method, reflects how human cognition has been developed. The method of examining a certain argument from an ignorance position and through rational discussion would have revolutionized the western philosophical thought being considered the first use known of the inductive argument – in which a set of experience-based assumptions would be initially confirmed as true and as a result, would lead to a universal truth. This argumentation form became the basis of all the empirical sciences (Costa, 2013) and has been used many times to question the knowledge of those who considered themselves wise. It starts from the perspective of one who knows nothing and, following on from, exposes inconsistencies observed in the arguments – or even the gaps perceived in the answers – to gradually extract insights or perceptions. The philosophical activity of Socrates supposedly takes place in stages (Yankee, 2013). He asked, insistently, questions that interested him and, in this way, has developed a new way to investigate what we think we know. Initially, in the part of the process known as irony, the philosopher purposely expressed in the opposite way to what he believed, imagined or even knew about a given subject, forcing the interlocutor to reveal its assumptions, ideas and opinions. With this tactic, Socrates led him to demonstrate his own ignorance on the subject, namely, that in fact this knew very little or almost nothing about the object of discussion. The next step in the method was known as maieutic, a word that comes from the Greek maieutiké and can be translated as the art of childbirth. Socrates would have said that his mother – who was a midwife – gave birth to children, while he gave birth to the ideas. He could be considered as an accoucheur, not accoucheur of babies but an accoucheur of suppositions, assisting the birth of the true ideas through brainstorming sessions.

Starting from the concepts presented by the interlocutor in the initial stage, Socrates exposed the contradictions and took him to agree with a new set of conclusions, seeking to discover the veracity of the knowledge in question. This method of seeking the truth through dialogue – including the processes of irony and maieutics – receives the name of dialectics, because it develops as a dialogue between opposing views. To Costa (2013), Socrates did not seek definitive answers or explanations. He possibly believed that to understand who we are would be the primary interest of philosophy and, in this sense, investigating only the basis of the concepts that we apply to ourselves. It would mean the “love of wisdom”, feeling experienced only by those aware of their own ignorance. Its central concern would have been the investigation about life: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. The mission of the philosopher would not be to instruct people or even learn what they thought they knew, but to explore the ideas that they had. All the truly wise man should say that they know nothing. And to get some knowledge about oneself and the world that surrounds it would be necessary to remove the preconceived ideas and understand the limits of your own ignorance. Only in this way, there would be some hope of determining the truth.

How to argue using the Socratic method This method can be used to show someone that he is wrong, imprecise or even get him to agree with statements that contradict their original assertion. Considering that Socrates possibly believed that the first step to knowledge would be the recognition of ignorance, it appears that this methodology is focused not only to prove certain concept, but to deconstruct the opposite with a series of questions (elenchus), leading to the uncertainty. This approach is used to develop critical thinking skills, used in classrooms, training in management and psychotherapy. (Burande, 2015; Come Discutere Utilizzando il Metodo Socrático, n.d.). Step 1: Locate a statement that summarizes the argument being debated. Apparently, Socrates discovered this statement by asking the person to answer certain question. For example: “What is the color of this table?”. The Socratic method can be employed with respect to any answer or statement in which the person appears to be sure, like, “This table is green”. Step 2: Analyze the consequences of this statement. Assume that the declaration is false and find an example where it can challenge it. You can provide a scenario, real or imaginary, where this argument is inconsistent. Use this scenario in a new question: “To a blind or colorblind person, is this table still green?”. If the person answers no, proceed to step 3. If the person says yes, ask: “What makes it green and not red to a colorblind? Or any other color to a blind person?”. In other words, “If someone is colorblind or can‟t see, what makes the table green?”. This question may well confuse some people who consider the vision as the perception of the human being. If so, go to the next step...

Step 3: Change the initial statement to take into account the exception: “So the table is green only to those that can see normally”. Challenge this new statement with another question. For example, “If the table is in the center of an empty room, where no one can see it, is it still green?”. Eventually, it will be possible to reach an argument with which the person agrees, but contradicts their initial declaration. In this example, you can end up indicating the subjectivity of the perception of color and argue (through questions rather than statements) that color only exists in people's minds as a result of their individual perception; it is not actually a property of the table. In other words, the table is not green. It is your opponent‟s perception of it that makes it green. Through this method it is possible to create challenging assumptions. If the aim is to argue effectively, this procedure can offer a number of suggestions, including to challenge their own beliefs. The key to using the methodology is to be humble and not assume that you or anyone else knows anything for sure. Each premise should be questioned, since the objective is to examine possibilities, which is done through questions and not answers.

A rereading of the Socratic method In a debate about the role of social networks in education (Atica & Scipione, 2011), Eduardo Chaves said that “the method of Socrates can be considered not school-related”, that is, cannot be studied or submitted to the learning process in school context. But that could change with the use of social networks. Furthermore, in the same way as happens in Socratic practice, the activities connected to these networks are not likely to be pegged to the curriculum frameworks. There would be, an education in vertical in which “all educate each other” – paraphrasing Freire (1987), “mediatized by the world”. And what the world offers us at this time? The social networks, virtual worlds, instant messaging and gaming systems. If the school will be able to adapt – appropriating of this possibility and making non-formal educational practices – we will be finally educating us more outside of school than at school. This is a challenge that depends on the capacity of the institutions – not necessarily the formal – to reinvent themselves towards a new situation that, without the technology, it would be absolutely impossible: to have something that is, at the same time, personal, customizable, and even global-scale. From the dream of Comenius (2006) to the finding of Freitas (2014), through the vision of Freire (1987) by challenge of Eduardo Chaves (Atica & Scipione, 2011)... The Socratic method can be considered an educational tool, since Socrates himself turned the marketplace of Athens into a classroom enticing his interlocutors through a dialog whereby they could have their assumptions questioned and at the same time learn, traveling towards new conceptions of knowledge and understanding (Davey, 2008). Probably, this is the first reference we have of a kind of student-focused education, stimulating their own thoughts and impressions of the facts – not accepting ready-made truths, forged, rewritten or imposed, as being absolute and unquestionable truths. Something similar to © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

the scholastic, which is centered on dialectic with the aim of extend knowledge through inference in the quest to solve the controversies. This concept is reflected in the UNESCO suggestions – directed to educators and philosophers – to find ways to include philosophy and philosophical inquiry in current education practices, in order to enhance the democratic ways of life (Tchoshanov, 2013). This recommendation is completely consistent with the current proposal that suggests the rescue of the Socratic method, and through a rereading, adapting it to current educational practices – didactic and technologically correct – these days in which the use of the internet has abolished the frontiers. Davey (2008) considers this time as the “arriving at a new beginning” through the “redefining socratic pedagogy”. However, what often prevents the connection between philosophy and educational technologies is a theory distant from practice and technologies; and a technological practice without any theory. That is, two completely different speeches that does not turn into a transformational practice. Lopes (2005) discusses these antagonisms and proposes to classify the charlatanisms of higher education pedagogy in four areas defined as alpha, beta, gamma and delta. Although in an empirical way, the reflections show a sad portrait of the reality. Over recent years, a wide range of researches have been carried out on using web conferencing to facilitate student collaboration (Winter & McGhieRichmond, 2005; Diziol, Walker, Rummel & Koedinger, 2010). Something that Downes (2012) calls cognitivism, that is, “that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks”. The study of Tucker & Neely (2010) explore the use of the Socratic method through web conferencing. Badgea, Saundersb & Canna (2012) brings new tools to visualize student engagement via social networks, where the Socratic method was used. Shahsavari & Hoon (2013) discuss the role of Socratic questions in promoting students‟ critical thinking through Web 2.0 tools. In addition, the portal SMRP (2004) – dedicated to advancing the use of the Socratic method – makes available free of charge all teaching perspectives, methods and resources developed for this purpose.

Videoconferencing and telepresence systems Mobility is always something interesting for students and teachers. But it has a cost and usually only includes some, discriminating the others. Not everyone can afford these costs and the scholarships and grants are not enough to meet demand. So it makes much more sense to move Mohammed to the mountain than the mountain to Mohammed. And Mohammed presently can use videoconferencing to be virtually in the “mountain”. “Every artist has to go where the people are” (Nascimento & Brant, 1981). According to Wauters (2009), the mYngle advocates the use of Skype for videoconferencing tutoring. This is an option of reasonable quality these days (broadband accesses), simple and free. Klein (2012) argues that the mYngle and © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

WizIQ use a proprietary technology for virtual classrooms – solution also used by eduFire, as well as Adobe Connect. Suggests two options: Vyew (2005) and BlueTeach, although these remain problems with the use of Flash (Adobe) and discusses some possibilities for the virtual classroom of the future, as the Conceptboard, without the use of Flash. The ClickMeeting (2006) offers several solutions, all paid, with differentials for nonprofit institutions. On their website there is a specific session suggesting ways to incorporate videoconferencing in a traditional classroom, fostering a more dynamic and engaging learning environment: lectures and classroom presentations; virtual presentation from a guest speaker; recorded lessons for online review; online meetings and webinars; staff meetings and professional development. The Fuze (1996) is another option, and is presented to the market as the “best” HD videoconferencing including online meeting services, webinar and screen sharing. PC Magazine (McLaughlin, 2015) compared what they regarded as the “best” videoconferencing services of 2015: ClickMeeting, Join.Me, Adobe Connect, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Citrix GoToMeeting, eVoice, Microsoft Skype for Business, Onstream Meetings, StartMeeting and InterCall. In addition to these services, there were comments about CometCall, Drum's ShareAnywhere, Google Hangouts and Zoom. In recent years, Roth (2007) has discussed, examined and specified video conference systems, as well as accompanied its evolution to telepresence systems (Roth, 2011) and what is perceived is that the ubiquitous availability of broadband in the various types of internet connection and video cameras in all mobile devices only contributed to increase the gap between the reality and the practice of schools and universities. All active social networks and the dominant Facebook have adapted, by providing additional support (add-ons, plugins and extensions) to the videoconferencing and making the usual and transparent practice, without the need of additional softwares. The same situation was verified in the various LMS (Roth, 2014). New videoconferencing solutions are always emerging (LVTSPB, 2009): Avaya – (Radvision) Scopia systems; AVer Information – HVC330, H300; Cisco Systems – Cisco TelePresence; Huawei – TP Telepresence series; Ericsson-LG – LVP series PSTN, ISDN and IP videophones; Librestream – Onsight; LifeSize – LifeSize Team, LifeSize Room & LifeSize Conference; Panasonic – VC500; Polycom – RealPresence Immersive Studio, OTX, HDX, Group series; Polycom – VVX; Sony – PCS systems; TrueConf – TrueConf Terminal; Vidyo – VidyoRoom & VidyoDesktop; and Zoom Video Communications – ZoomPresence. Apparently, these solutions with dedicated hardware-based codecs still offer better quality than software-based codecs, but that is not always important or

even necessary – not to mention that the situation can change rapidly with the availability of a higher bandwidth and cloud computing resources. The costs involved indicate that the best structure must be on the side of whoever produces the contents (videos) or even the person who manages the processes (does the current teacher‟s role in videoconferences). Usually only one person speaks at a time – with the exception of the Italians (parlare tutti insieme). In this sense, even the solutions considered more modest and without acquisition costs may be suitable. The differential should not be focused on technology (best system and with better quality), much less in technological dependence, but in the effective use of solutions that are already available in more than one vendor – absolutely nothing lasts forever– if possible free of charge, as an affordable means of natural and transparent use. Try to give emphasis to technology or even consider it not as a means, but as an end sends us to the fears of society entering a new era. To Gale Anne Hurd, the vision in the Terminator was that human arrogance has led to the complete destruction of civilization, because we placed all our trust in technology (Southwell, 2014). What could change, of course, should be the involvement of customers (students) through a provocative method – so that they get out of inertia. One of the main goals of education has been to strengthen the relationship between long-term memory and intelligence, helping people to store information to subsequently use them in problem-solving (Hielkema et al., 2012). Soon, regardless of where they are these clients, videoconferencing will always be a means to distribute tasks, since the Socratic method can and should be associated with PBL methodology.

Stop & Go The year 2015 can, in a sense, be regarded as the year in which the internet lost definitely their innocence. We passed the boosterism of the Free (Anderson, 2010), to the unfulfilled promises of cloud computing (Seshachala, 2015; Henthorn-Iwane, 2015) – with all of the coupled traps, until we reach the total lack of privacy and security, as demonstrated in all Google episodes and by latest Microsoft OS version (Windows 10) with several definitions that not only simplify, but try to impose the “socialization” of the user. Not to mention the trend of intelligent virtual assistants who want to know all of your life and always inform the owners (Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Now, Amazon Eco Alexa, etc.). The dream of having a J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System) at home can always become a nightmare. George Orwell would have commented about his book, 1984, that “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” (Müller, 1989, p. 106). The documentaries Facebook Follies (Peill & D‟Eon, 2011) and Deep Web (Winter, 2015) exploit these facets of “modernity”. The exacerbated exposure on one side and the quest for anonymity and privacy of another, considered © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

politically correct or not, depending on the time in which we are living. But in both cases we witnessed astonished to governments considered democratic – as of the United States, and in the Obama era – acting contrary to rights and basic and fundamental guarantees on behalf of copyright protection, the drug enforcement, or of the so-called terrorism – and they do it through something much worse, something created by themselves: the state terrorism (Roberts, 2004; IPE, 2011). From “yes we can” to “yes we scan”. Common place in history when a society makes the transition from freedom to dictatorship and just one more of the contradictions of a country with a discourse of respect for human rights, but that does not submit nor even the decisions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). According to Siddiqui (2008), “The same jihad which was acclaimed as a holy war of liberation and was supported in terms of money, weapons, training, manpower and moral support is now seen as terrorism in a world where „war on terror‟ is the slogan of the day”. Scapegoats are created (Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Shawn Fanning, Ross Ulbricht) to manipulate the masses and create exemplary executions, which can serve as an “example” and spread the fear: “When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear” (Hall, 1928). Schröder (2002) points out the risks of a greater intervention by the modern civil state and a weakened right of defense for the accused – whoever they may be. In this way, by the completely arbitrary definition of terrorism it is very easy to realize that “the war on terror has little to do with combating terrorism and instead has as its primary objective the erosion of fundamental rights in the EU”. What often we tend to classify as terrorism may well be a last gasp of freedom. The real terrorism is always implicit in immoral actions and unfortunately in both situations we will always have innocent victims. This limit position is just another consequence or even proof of our inability to solve our conflicts. The modern definition of terrorism could be something like: everything that others do to try to survive or even to not submit to the actions and desires of the powerful – against which has no chance to fight under the same conditions. Powerful states that create laws and international courts to others, because they are the first to ignore these limitations or even international treaties which have acceded and signed... But what could be the way to ensure security, privacy and at the same time universal access to information, training and opportunities that the internet can offer without any kind of persecution, overexposure or discrimination? The businessman Jorge Paulo Lemann, currently the richest man in Brazil (2016), pondered that idealistic speeches don't help to build practical solutions: “There's a lot of people in Brazil who thinks that equality is a beauty. I think equality is a

beauty too, only it doesn't work. Equality of opportunity, that is true. Now, equality for equality... People are not equal” (Frias & Bilenky, 2015). Surely people are not equal, but many of them can count with a family background or even with an initial financial support and privileged information, not always obtained honestly and transparently. Most do not have access to the same level of education; to the personal, professional and government contacts in certain places that allow leverage their individual possibilities exponentially, in a short time and put them in prominent positions with minimum effort – and many times none. In this way, of course, they can't count on the same opportunities... But where there is equal opportunities and inclusion for all persons, without any kind of favoritism or discrimination? At Lemann Foundation, or even in companies captained by Jorge Lemann? Of course not. In these places a given profile is exploited or even searched – at the detriment of others – of workaholic entrepreneurs, who according to his own words should save Brazil (Instituto Millenium, 2016). The opportunities are created just for some few privileged people, and despite the capitalist logic of the creature, does not match with the public discourse of the creator. It is just another fallacy of meritocracy... Jorge Lemann (Lemann Foundation) and Bill Gates (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) are supporters of the Khan Academy, but it is not a matter of collective funding (crowdfunding). The full list (2014-2015), which includes many foundations, can be verified in Our Supporters (2016). Probably the support for this kind of venture – really free of charge and within everyone's reach – is derived from a sense of guilt. “There's a correlation between generosity and guilt. But, you got the money. Break as many eggs as you like” (Feige & Russo, 2016). At the same time, there is always an untold story, different from the official, which hides the tracks of those who fell by the wayside, in climbing to success. “The things that we‟ve done to survive they don‟t define us” (Miller & Showalter, 2014). Although it is laudable the work of some foundations and institutes, it is not any favor. Basically, they don‟t do anything with their own resources, but from donations, deductions, and taxes not paid directly to governments, applied in their own social programs (Guerreiro, 2012). Something similar to what the Lions Clubs International (2001) always did: success with the money of others – in this case, with the tax money, which theoretically should be to the benefit of all citizens. Why not create opportunities for everyone, not only of study, but also of access to knowledge and subsequent application? “A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance” (Perry & Radford, 1984). When we tried to fetch only a certain profile at the expense of others, when we begin to choose “the best” – often in a subjective and biased manner, to the detriment of all or even any one – this possibility of giving specific destination to resources that should be public fails blatantly... © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Only a state committed to social equality and free of the corruption in essential sectors would be able to give exactly the same opportunities, without discrimination of any kind, for everyone. Considering that a market – where really are created the professional opportunities and where companies and states hire labor – able to select personnel in a transparent way. The problem is that this issue is theoretical and even in socialist or communist utopias was never able to materialize – since the discriminatory employment practices are always present. Even in the European Union who built his unit under the difference and as a product of a long historical construction – receiving the Nobel Peace Prize (EU, 2012) – the policy of protection against discrimination cannot fulfill its role (EC, 2015; Equinet, 2015). The instinctive reaction of all creatures with fear is to retreat to a safe place. However, for a large portion of legal immigrants (or even “real” refugees) the European dream of today – or the American dream of the past – remains an urban legend. Suddenly, the dream so desired becomes a nightmare... Even citizens of member states coexist with intolerance and discriminatory acts that constrain, mistreat and ignore human and community rights. In the background seems to persist the fear by changes in lifestyle, the dispute by the labor market or even the access to health and education. After all, following the implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the European university courses all look the same (independent from the university), though some are fully or partially paid and other totally free of charge (Roth, 2015a). What is the subjective importance (always discriminatory) that can be attributed to its origin, to the country, you are in; to university in which you have studied, the publisher in which you print your books or the journal you publish your papers? Many researchers provide their papers to publishers like Elsevier, JSTOR, Sage and Springer because they consider that have a study published in these magazines brings prestige and recognition by the scientific community. Directly, they do not earn anything with this and do not receive no portion of the money collected through exorbitantly high charges. These publishers simply take ownership of the content, for which they do not pay (Oswald, 2016). They create their own systems of indexing and impact factor – something that only reflects your edits ignoring the open access journals. Such global indices – as the Science Citation Index, Scopus or Web of Science – include a small number of journals and tend to favor publications in English – considered the global scientific language (Altbach, 2014) – something that can be characterized as neocolonialism. Thus they handle only what interests them and feeds the wicked system. In this sense they discriminate what may or may not be published, who can or cannot publish, the pseudo-subjective quality or even the validity of publications – in accordance or not with certain editorial line. They live from this system where they imagine that only they have the right to do so and then charge what they imagine – without the payment of any copyrights. © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Notice the sequence: take ownership, adapt and not pay for the use. This practice is so absurd as the rankings that imagine evaluate the quality of universities and, in some countries, could be characterized as larceny and formation of gangs. But count on the connivance of the universities, which seem to be engaged in a global arms race of publication, of researchers “hostages” of this system or even of a corrupt and compromised system of “justice”. For many students and researchers, the website Sci-Hub (2011, 2015), (Tor: scihub22266oqcxt.onion) – the equivalent to The Pirate Bay for academic research – is the only way to gain access to certain content that should be in the public domain, but which are subject to exploitation, privatization of knowledge, trading and a false elitism in the scientific sphere. “The world, although round, has many corners” (Abreu, 2013). In this sense, merit should always be something individual and own of personal production and not derivative, discriminated or even pegged to an imaginary differential of quality or tradition... The Khan Academy and the mYngle can and presumably will always be criticized by people and institutions who are part of the dominant system and see their lifestyle threatened. It is always easier and comfortable criticizing who does that at least trying to do. However, they can be considered as contemporary models, efficient, effective and successful – of the market differential and the effective use of videos and videoconferencing – to leverage ventures and educational initiatives through the internet. Marina and Sal basically did not create anything new. They just reused everything that was already available, even if developed by others and for free. Probably this is one of the keys to success: take ownership of an idea, adapt and not pay for the use. This simple modus operandi is part of absolutely every business success stories – that we so admire. Just check the cases of Microsoft, Apple, Facebook or even some publishers that are parasites of science. Many people who have created or developed something original – like Kane Kramer, the real inventor of the iPod – will not have gained any money from this (Boffey, 2008). In Brazil, it has become fashionable to discuss the legacy of Jorge Paulo Lemann and his business partners – Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles – however there is also that the ideas were never of them. To Claudio Haddad, president of Ibmec São Paulo, “Jorge Paulo is not a genius in an ivory tower”. This was one of the striking features of “developed culture” at Bank Garantia: its ease in copying the good examples. According to Carlos Alberto Sicupira, “The great advantage of Brazil is that you can copy what is being developed elsewhere and do here. You can copy everything, no need to be reinventing the wheel”. “What we have done for the entire life? Only copied. We did not invent anything. Still well. Inventing things is a danger darn”.

Copy and implement – and do not innovate or even create – have always been the favorite words in this group. Jorge Lemann confirms, “Worth much more a good logic, a good execution, than any brilliant innovation”. “You have to worry about innovation. But if someone is doing well, best not to spend too much time looking for how to do it. Go there, look and adapts to their way, and ready”. (Teixeira, Hessel & Oliveira, 2008). What lessons can we take of the mega ventures of William Henry Gates III, Steven Paul Jobs, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg or even of Jorge Paulo Lemann? Practically no teaching. No one replicates success stories, because the temperature and pressure conditions are never the same. However, we learn more from our mistakes and from the mistakes of others – than with our possible achievements or even with the achievements of others... Probably Salman Amin Khan and Marina Tognetti have much more to show us than our representative icons of certain exceptional situations – not always clearly demonstrable and exempt from criticism... Our false heroes are always better at everything: are richer, more intelligent, are better-looking, more resourceful or simply are considered better than us, without any superficial adjective. In this context, modern heroes are amenities missing, at least, through a paradoxical perspective (Sapelli, 2011). José Abelardo Barbosa de Medeiros, known as Chacrinha (2009), was a great radio communicator and one of the biggest names in Brazilian television. Was the author of the famous phrase: “Na televisão, nada se cria, tudo se copia” (In television, nothing is created, everything is copied) – probably parodying the statement of Antoine Lavoisier (2001): “Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme” (Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed) or Giordano Bruno (Kessler, 1900): “Il tempo tutto toglie e tutto dà; ogni cosa si muta, nulla s'annichila” (Time gives all and takes all away; everything changes but nothing perishes). This concept of lack of originality can be taken without risk to everything that relates to the Internet, especially education – even that considered technologically correct – where the copy and paste many times means the practice rather than the exception. Be ahead of its time is a capacity that almost never gives any advantage to its possessor. Lavoisier was convicted of treason and lost his head on the guillotine. Giordano Bruno was called a heretic and burned at the stake by the “holy” inquisition. Malcolm X was murdered before he had time to develop their new ideas. Socrates was forced to drink hemlock for pissing off many people. The premise credited to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, that “When a human being awakens to a great dream about and it throws all the strength of his soul, the whole universe conspires in your favor” is false, because the human element is always perversely present. We always destroy our heroes. © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

The reality that prevails, corrupts and marginalizes all those who oppose the established truths makes many thinkers remain hidden with fear of rejection or ridicule (Roth, 2015c). Faced with several notorious practices, observed in several amazing schools around the world, Roth (2015a) pointed out good examples that could be followed, copied or even reused with proper adaptation: the secret ingredient. Any cake recipe when replicated requires the use of this supplement that is neither explicit nor described. In the case of the deployment of a new idea will always be the previous sensitization, persuasion, participation, and agreement of the parties involved. Without pressure or obligation to those who will actually use every day a new process or way of working. Without this small detail, there will always be some kind of boycott and any action in this regard will be subject to the low level of adoption, as verified in all pretentiously modern universities. Among these special cases, the Escola da Ponte, from Portugal, became known among those that should be considered hors-concours. And it is exactly this model of non-formal practices that will be tested (Souza, 2016) in a pilot project, in a pilot project, by two public schools in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul: without assessment tests and without formal classes... When we want to carry out some movement forward in educational terms we always have the opportunity to skip steps and go straight to the current state of the art. Learn from the experiences of others. Although this can be verified in some schools of Brazil, cannot be generalized. In March 2016 took place the Open Education Week (Open Education Week, 2011), with the support of the Parana Program for Open Education Practices and Resources (Rea Paraná, 2014), an interinstitutional action created in 2014 by the Federal University of Parana and the Federal Technological University of Parana. Open Educational Resources (OER) and the inception of repositories never formatted or delivered any product (full course, with or without certification – only lessons of courses). It can, in a way, be considered as an evolutionary stage, but it is an outdated view, at least fourteen years. Although there are verified experiments since 1999, the OCW movement really took off with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare in 2002 (OpenCourseWare, 2007). The MOOCs were a step forward – they were formatted as courses (they could use OCW materials), but never reached the level of FLOSCs. Not to mention that all this requires some level of authorship, something unthinkable for anyone who does not create, only copies – or appropriates. In the videos and in video conferencing this changes, but imagine that the model of the Khan Academy will be the next step remains an open question. The really public universities (without tuition fees) is that should evolve to take this step forward. The Khan Academy and mYngle, how they were developed, would not have existed without the current internet. Without the use of videos and videoconferencing not left the commonplace, would not have gained such visibility, recognition, and attracted so many users. For sure is a refreshing © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

change, recycling the same old material that has always been rehashed. The main attraction of the Khan Academy is the fact of being free of charge and the promise of so remain for future – Besides, of course, the quality of the currently produced material. The mYngle, by contrast, faces many competitors with similar strategies. Which business model will be able to survive is a matter of time, for the future. There is no an apparent didactic innovation – in reference only to those considered correct today – in none of the initiatives. What exists is a good use of available technology and a good selection of teachers, not only based on inflated resumes, who you know (recommendation letters) or even dishonest competitions. While the mYngle applies the traditional concept of maintenance (who pays the bill are the users) does not represent a serious risk to the status quo. On the other side the Khan Academy appears defending opposing ideas to those of the establishment, and applies the maximum of the Free (Anderson, 2010), that is, that someone will surely pay the bill, but need not be the end user. In the case, currently who pays the costs are several foundations, individual donors (who earn the right to expose its name as benefactors) and anonymous donors (who do it out of conviction and do not seek this form of promotion). In these two ventures the effects are much more noticeable, because the actions are not limited to a particular country or language, since the internet – usually – does not impose borders. This concept – of not only globalization or internationalization, but of universality – should be replicated by all universities in the world, to keep up to date and adapt to changing times in order to finally meet the beautiful revolutionary, democratic and constitutional rule of “education universal, compulsory and free” for all. This is not a reality, not even in Europe. Ferrer (2001) said fifteen years ago that “And the European Union has the moral and political obligation to provide the financial resources necessary to achieve free education for all between now and 2015”. And since last year this deadline is not met – without which the objectives have been achieved. In this context, Downes (2011) tells stories about open source, open content and open learning – through the lens of the person who wants access to these resources, rather than the provider's vision. We have to somehow, go through this learning curve. Sherman (1982) wrote that “You can‟t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending”. We still cannot go back in time, but we can all take a step back and then take two steps forward and make a new choice. An important question that should be reviewed and continues to move away the academic environment from the business community is an alleged false pretense or even a pseudo-referential of originality that permeates the publications and practices of the educational milieu (Silva, 2011; Dey, 2006). Fake, because in daily practices, subtly, manipulated or even explicit manner, prevails in the copy, the © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

plagiarism, the unethical practices (as to include co-authors without participation and after have this favor reciprocated) and the reuse of materials without update, by professors. The writers have always known that “books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told” (Eco, 1984). We should not be forced or pressured to create useless academic papers, theses, dissertations or even supposedly scientific papers, that have as justification only fulfill some imposed precondition, not practical or even constitute some number abstract to be able to reference some level of production under the false aegis of the quality or even giving some merit to its supposed author (DORA, 2012). More important than this would be the adaptation, the applicability and the massive use – and this has been, demonstrably, the recipe to get good results... Parodying Umberto Eco (1989), this is an open work, and as such should be seized and enriched by each one of us. More complex paths could be traveled by with creativity, knowledge and competence – qualities not always present in who clings to certain jobs and positions without the intention or even pretension to enable change, regardless of fads. There is therefore a special need to promote the formation of the new generation of teachers who, in the near future will be in educational key positions. The background should always be the belief in the need to democratize education, provide access for all; and in the capacity that we have many of us, educators, trained or not, to do an education with high standards of quality, regardless of distances (Roth, 2013). Then we can move forward, without turning the issue into another sensationalist story or continue putting forever the blame on our colonizers (Filho, 2015). At Ca' Foscari University of Venice (UNIVE) the few references related to the Socratic method are found in the book “Capire e dissentire, Cicerone e la filosofia di Epicuro” (Maso, 2008), in the course “Problemi Particolari di Didattica delle Scienze Sociali” (Gozzo, 2009), in the degree theses “Marco Aurelio: filosofia e potere” (Dei Rossi, 2012) and “Sviluppo, valutazione ed analisi delle competenze trasversali nell'high education” (Pisanello, 2013) and in the doctoral thesis “Platone e la scrittura di dialoghi socratici: strategie, interlocutori e finalità” (Candiotto, 2011). Just another one of the gaps of a traditional university with a misleading discourse of modernity and technological security (current policy requires changing passwords every 180 days), but that hosts its institutional emails on Google (Roth, 2015c).

Conclusion Far from being unanimous, the Socratic method has always been a fit topic for polemics and various speculations, being worshiped by some and hated by others. Throughout history this approach went through several steps, since a questionable usage (for its supposed creator), followed by a misinterpretation (of his detractors) to what we can consider as their redemption and consequent adoption, in the days of today. This is not a new discovery, only a rediscovery. © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Many times the secret is in the simplicity. In the movie The Martian (Kinberg & Scott, 2015), “there are moments in which the protagonist seems to be Brazilian, as he is always taken by that spirit of never give up and lives finding a way for everything” (Zarour, 2015). Should not be this the common place? The spirit which guides us and keeps us active in the market? “The reversal of discourse on the one hand challenges some created truths, facts, common sense and ideologies, and on the other offers alternative truths and facts” (Siddiqui, 2008). We do not need to expose to ridicule any person, much less our students. But the practice would not all bad if applied to many who consider themselves teachers, subcelebrities who insist on ascending to the throne or even refuse to come down from the pedestal, without any right or even personal merit – “conquered” and not acquired through financial resources or third-party indications. Help them put on the sandals of humility and to accept that, with very few exceptions, we are not special and we do not know anything with certainty. Merit should not be something that you can buy through articles for paid publications, small print runs of books (the unethical side of the “Portuguese knack”) – through a growing number of vanity publishers that will publish books for a fee (Altbach, 2014) – or even by participation in events industry very little or no “scientific”. As that living a waking dream, in a Matrix outside of reality, we delude ourselves and we imagine that we know. We think, we feel and even believe we know, but we do not know – It is a dangerous trap thinking that way. In this sense, Socrates was the truly wise, because he had the full notion of their “learned ignorance” (docta ignorantia). Back to the Socratic paradox: “ipse se nihil scire id unum sciat”, that is, “I know that I know nothing” or “I know one thing: that I know nothing”…

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No.6, pp. 33-47, May 2016

Documentary Film: The Next Step in Qualitative Research to Illuminate Issues of Social Justice in Urban Education Jennifer Friend University of Missouri – Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri, USA Loyce Caruthers University of Missouri – Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Abstract. This conceptual paper explores the unique contribution to traditional qualitative research methodology and urban educational renewal that documentary film can achieve through illumination of issues of social justice and existing inequities in public education in the United States. Through arts-based inquiry, the authors incorporated critical race theory with digital video to explore the truths and realities of schooling for urban students in the Midwestern United States. The purpose of these two film projects was to help educators and community members think more deeply about the socialization of children within institutions, where enduring historical and sociocultural ideologies may exist. Friend and Caruthers assert that adopting documentary film as a research paradigm creates opportunities to share stories from schools that illuminate diverse perspectives of voice, which can be used to transform school communities. Keywords. Qualitative methods; urban education; social justice; video research; documentary film.

1. Introduction: Documentary Film as Research This article introduces a specific approach grounded in post-qualitative inquiry (St. Pierre, 2015) to illuminate issues of social justice and existing inequities in United States urban public schools using documentary film. St. Pierre (2015) devised the idea of ―post qualitative inquiry” (p. 75) to challenge ―‗conventional humanist qualitative inquiry,‘ which I argue has become overdetermined by the publishing industry, university research courses, and journal and books that detail very carefully what it is and how to do it‖ (p. 75). As a postmodernist project, film crosses, incorporates or reconstructs borders of

different disciplines, research paradigms, geographical locations and cultures (Gribich, 2013). Film captures authentic voices and lived experiences of students, educators, and community members with diverse perspectives in order to share knowledge and experiences that have the potential to contribute to equity and democracy in education. This research approach began as arts-based inquiry, wherein the authors produced two documentary short films, What Kids / Teens Love and Hate about School, featuring interviews with diverse students attending urban public schools as they shared their stories and experiences. The films and video excerpts have been screened at professional research conferences and used as teaching tools within educational preparation programs in diverse regions of the United States and in the United Kingdom. Through arts-based inquiry, the purpose of the use of ―dance, theater, drama, film, collage, video, photography . . . . when grounded in a critical performance pedagogy . . . can be used to advance a progressive political agenda that addresses issues of social inequity‖ (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 642). We incorporated critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 2004) with digital video to share the truths and realities of schooling for urban students and to help teachers and educational leaders, researchers, policymakers, and community activists to examine issues of social justice grounded in historical inequities. Researchers have used digital video as an ethnographic research tool for decades (Goldman, 2004; Rosenstein, 2002), providing accessibility to a wider audience than traditional research methods such as publications in research journals. Video also provides the opportunity for viewers to engage in their own meaning-making. In this conceptual article, the authors will share the research methods used to produce documentary films that share stories from schools with diverse perspectives of voice, which can be used to transform school communities.

2. The Enduring Inequities in Urban Schools There are many people living in poverty in rural parts of the United States; however, approximately two-thirds of the poor live in the nation‘s inner cities or in ―fiscally stressed suburbs and towns‖ (Anyon, 2014, p. 9). The inner cities or urban core regions within the U.S. have become places where disenfranchised groups who cannot escape their impoverished neighborhoods live amidst a decreasing tax base that cannot adequately support the educational and service needs of the community. They are often viewed as constructed others, separated from thriving business and community services, and their neighborhoods lack the economic support necessary to provide the means to expand opportunities. Young (1990) explained that otherness develops from the experience of ways ―the dominant meanings of a society render the particular perspective of one‘s own group invisible at the same time as they stereotype one‘s group and mark it out as the other‖ (p. 59). When there are economic opportunities in the urban core, the others are pushed out of the region to make room for new inhabitants and visitors. An example of such gentrification can be seen in inner cities across the United States with the repurposing of old buildings into loft apartments that are so expensive that rents are in excess of what most middle class families could afford. By demolishing low income

apartment housing and forcing residents to live elsewhere, new shopping and dining facilities take over these city blocks. There is still much work that needs to be done to promote social justice in order to fulfill our nation‘s vision of an equal chance at life, liberty, and happiness for every citizen. The same is true when applied to providing every student an equal chance at a first-class education. In particular, the problem confronting urban schools serving higher percentages of Black and Latino males is dire in terms of achievement, assignment to special education, limited participation in gifted programs, school graduation rates, enrollment and completion of college, and other factors that reflect their status in American society (Conchas, 2012; Holzman, 2006; Levin, Belfield, Muennig, & Rouse, 2007; Noguera, 2012; Rios & Galicia, 2014). Ladson-Billings (2006) posits that even when comparable family incomes exist there is still a gap in achievement between African Americans and Latina/os and their white counterparts based on standardized test measures. The persistent low achievement, labelled the achievement gap, is one of the most heavily discussed and debated issues in education which has not been examined contextually to determine broader contributors to inequality. Several scholars such as Irvine (2010) and Milner (2013) have explained the phenomenon as an opportunity gap, an issue of deeply-rooted societal biases that have produced educational disparities among students of color. Irvine (2010) insists that other gaps must be closed: ―Gaps include the teacher-quality gap, the teacher-training gap, the challenging curriculum gap, the school-funding gap, the digitaldivide gap, the affordable-housing gap, the health care gap, the employment-opportunity gap, the school-integration gap, and the quality child-care gap‖ (p. xii). Recently, the emphasis on the Common Core State Standards Initiative to improve reading and math achievement has emerged across the United States, while some states have opted out of this top down approach (The Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2014). There is more involved in the preparation of educators and leaders for urban schools than an understanding of statistics related to student achievement. Investigating schools through the medium of film, while incorporating critical race theory, yields a key to unlocking the hidden stories within the diverse students who attend them.

3. Critical Race Theory Critical race theory (CRT) holds that racism exists within societies as a social construction that contributes to inequities in the overall society and in institutions such as schools. The individuals credited with the conception of CRT applied to critical examination of educational contexts consisted of a number of scholars of color (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Lynn & Parker, 2006) with an activist agenda, intended to bring about change and social justice (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004). Ladson-Billings (2000) notes: ―The gift of CRT is that it unapologetically challenges the scholarship that would dehumanize and depersonalize us…In CRT the researcher makes a deliberate appearance in his or her work….the deeply personal rendering of social science that CRT scholars bring to their work helps

break open the mythical hold that traditional work has on knowledge…CRT helps us to raise some important questions about the control and production of knowledge…particularly knowledge about people and communities of color‖ (p. 272). Critical Race Theory has been used in education to critique current policies, curriculum, pedagogical practices, and assessment of learning (Ladson-Billings, 2004). Storytelling, which is central to our use of documentary film to advance student voice, is used in CRT as a way to express the experiences of ethnically diverse students (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Parker & Lynn, 2002; Solorzano & Yosso, 2005). Through the lens of CRT as applied to analysis of interviews and observational data, we were able to apprehend stories of the lived experiences of students in urban settings. Esteban-Guitart and Moll (2014) describe lived experience as ―the result of any transaction between people and the world, emphasizing the subjective significance of the situation on the person.…the subjective side of culture – mediates and organizes behaviours‖ (p. 33). Using documentary film, we were able to capture their meanings of schooling within urban settings as seen and heard through each student‘s voice and lived experiences.

4. Meaning-Making and Documentary Films When creating a documentary project, the filmmaker chooses what to film, whom to film, where to film, and how to film the participant. Blanc (2014) stated that, ―the discourse of the documentary filmmakers focuses particularly on the transformation of the person filmed into a character…it should facilitate the introduction of recognizable features to the viewer, i.e. representations of the Other both near and different from ourselves‖ (p. 127). A definition of documentary film provided by Cantine, Howard, and Lewis (2000) stated that: ―In its most basic sense a documentary is a film in which the filmmaker allows the action or events to unfold naturally with minimal interference… The very process involved in making a film requires that the artist manipulate the subject material to some extent. Differences in documentary style are often a matter of the degree of manipulation the filmmaker chooses to impose‖ (p. 14). A filmmaker may choose to appear in the documentary film, and to embrace persuasive techniques as evident in the work of Michael Moore, seeking to influence the audience to address social issues ranging from gun control to health care reform. Griffiths (2013) stated that, ―the subjective presence of the filmmaker in the frame emphasizes how reality and representation are indivisible, mutually imbricated, and subjectively grounded‖ (p. 41). In order to explore the meanings communicated to the audience through the narrative of a documentary film, one can use ―qualitative or interpretive techniques such as semiotics or ideological analysis‖ (Berger, 2000, p. 15). In addition to film analysis through theories and techniques associated with media studies, documentary films are accessible to and interpreted by a wide audience. The viewer sees images and listens to the voices of documentary film participants, filtering this through prior knowledge, beliefs, and experiences.

The documentary work produced by the co-authors of this article has been centered on the voices of students in urban public schools. Voice may be defined as ―meaning that resides in the individual and enables that individual to participate in a community. . . . Voice suggests relationships: the individual‘s relationship to the meaning of his/her experience‖ (Britzman, 1990, p. 14). This definition focuses on an individual‘s meanings, relationships, and experiences within the larger community. While the authors‘ documentary film work has served to amplify students‘ voices as part of a research agenda, other educationrelated documentary films have been created with different purposes. 4.1 Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman. An example of the different ways of making meaning from a documentary film focused on U.S. education can be seen in Waiting for Superman, released in 2010. An article published in the popular U.S. magazine Entertainment Weekly referred to Guggenheim‘s documentary film as ―This Fall‘s MUST-SEE Documentary,‖ describing the feature-length movie focused on public schooling and charter schools as a ―penetrating, moving documentary‖ (Sperling, 2010, p. 49). Another review described the film as a ―moving but vastly oversimplified brief on American educational inequality‖ (Goldstein, 2010, p. 20), criticizing Guggenheim‘s one-sided portrayal of ―teachers‘ unions as the villains in the struggle to close the achievement gap, despite their long history of advocating for more school funding, smaller class sizes and better school resources and facilities‖ (p. 21). In addition to the debate in the popular press related to the accuracy of claims in the film, meaning-making is impacted by whether a viewer had prior experience as a student, parent, or educator. One U.S. teacher preparation program designed a viewing experience for the film where candidates were also provided with a ―detournement—i.e., a countertext—that challenged the main arguments of the documentary‖ (p. 69). According to Trier (2013), ―the project clearly caused several students to reconsider their initial agreements with some of the more problematic claims, assertions, and arguments made by Waiting for Superman‖ (p. 71). Many possible meanings are determined by the film itself and the possible meanings of the social and world context outside the film.

5. Documentary Film: Visual Qualitative Research Methodology The authors claim our work as an arts-based practice that grew out of advances in theory, including feminism, postmodernism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, critical race theory, queer theory, and other theoretical perspectives (Leavy, 2015). According to Grbich (2013), ―The impact and sensory experience of the image on the viewer rather than an emphasis on the artist‘s meaning or someone else‘s interpretation provides the postmodern focus in art‖ (p. 109). The therapeutic nature of the arts and their healing powers stimulated the ―current practice of arts-based research practices‖ (Leavy, 2015, p. 11). We viewed documentary film as an opportunity to step outside the formalized methods of the interpretive turn forged in the 1980s (St. Pierre, 2015) which tend to block new ways of thinking. St. Pierre (2015) stated, ―In fact, the new empiricist might well argue that attempting to follow a given research method

will likely foreclose possibilities for the ‗new.‘ The new empiricist researcher, then, is on her own, inventing inquiry in the doing‖ (p. 81). Finley (2011) makes the distinction between traditional qualitative research and arts-based inquiry: ―Communicating the ―ordinary extraordinary‖ (Dissanayake, 1997) through vernacular expressions in the context of mass media popular culture—radio, television, film—does more than introduce dialogues that ―automatically contain, constrain, or even liberate us,‖ writes Joli Jensen (2002, p. 198). ―Instead these cultural forms are part of an ongoing, humanly constructed conversation about the reality we are shaping as we participate in it‖ (p. 198)‖ (p. 443). In translating traditional methods used in qualitative investigations to collect and analyze data, such as facilitating interviews or focus groups and then transcribing the data, the following procedures are applied to planning an investigation using documentary film as research:  Site selection → The researcher determines where to position the camera ―to explore the bounds of space and place where the human body is a tool for gathering and exploring meaning in experience‖ (Finley, 2011, p. 444).  Participant selection and informed consent → The researcher applies sampling procedures to identify a community of learners for engaging a political project to promote social justice using film and obtains consent using a Media Release form. Participant selection might be based on intensity sampling defined by Patton (2015) as ―information-rich cases that manifest the phenomenon intensely, but not extremely‖ (p. 267).  Inquiry Phase → The researcher acquires the necessary equipment and production crew expertise to record high-quality video and audio, and plans filming schedule and protocols (e.g. semi-structured questions that will explore ―meaning in experience‖ (Finley, 2011, p. 444) in a videotaped interview session). Semi-structured interviews, typically organized around a set of predetermined, open-ended questions, allow the researcher to ask all participants the same questions and to contextualize the interview process according to the unique experiences of each participant, which produces a unique set of questions for each participant (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006; Merriam, 2009).  Making Meaning → The researcher makes meaning of the video images and context to select the clips that best represent theory and concepts – engaging in ―conceptual practices‖ (p. 91), which St. Pierre (2015) suggests lead the researcher to identify those theories and concepts to ―think about whatever she wants to think about . . . when confused . . . go back to the texts and reread the theory, to plunge into the words of scholars who inspire (p. 90).  Sharing results → The researcher sequences the video clips and completes a post-production process (e.g. recording narration, adding title cards, etc.) to create the documentary film, then seeks venues to share the results with an audience. According to Friend and Militello (2015), ―Video as a research instrument has the potential to transform research from something we do to subjects to something we do with participants—co-generation of knowledge through inclusion of authentic voices that can be shared with a wide audience‖ (p. 91). Smith (2009) cautions filmmakers setting out to support concepts of social justice

through their work; ―Despite the intention of the filmmakers, their position of privilege does not consistently provide a perspective from which the representation of the other is acknowledged or challenged‖ (p. 159). For this reason, seeking to move the research from the interpretive turn forged in the 1980s is warranted for a new empiricism that will challenge the viewers of documentary films generated using these methods to re-examine their own beliefs and understandings about issues of race, class, gender, and other social constructions that support inequities within schools and societies. 5.1. Two documentary film examples: What Kids and Teens Love and Hate about School. These qualitative research methods were applied to the production of two documentary short films, whose purpose was two-fold: (1) to use critical race theory to help educational leadership candidates and community members think more deeply about the educational experiences of elementary and secondary students within urban educational institutions, where enduring deficit orientations are likely to exist, and (2) to enable the film viewers to engage in their own meaning-making of students‘ voices leading to school renewal based on what students want from their urban schools. According to Creswell (2007), ―The focus of all qualitative research needs to be an understanding of the phenomenon being explored rather than solely on the reader, the researcher, or the participants‖ (p. 3). The phenomena of inquiry for these projects included the experiences of students within both traditional district and charter public urban schools. Three elementary schools and two high schools located in the urban core of a Midwestern city agreed to participate in the documentary film projects. All students were invited to participate in a videotaped interview using a letter and a media release form that was signed by parents or guardians of the students who wanted to be interviewed. There were 144 students in grades 1 through 8 interviewed for the What Kids love and Hate about School documentary short film, and 28 high school students interviewed for the Teens project. Questions guiding the interviews were crafted based upon language that could be readily comprehended by students, using semi-structured questioning techniques that included:  What are things you like about school?  What are the things you hate about school  Tell us what would you change about school?  If you could talk to teachers, what would you say to them? During the semi-structured interviews, when we asked about what things they liked about schools, contextualized questions often included: What was it that you like about…? How did it make you feel? How did other students respond? Interviews ranged from 25 to 30 minutes with elementary participants and 30 to 40 minutes with high school students. Time was spent at the beginning of the interview to establish trust and rapport with participants. We listened to students‘ voices as a critical component for supporting urban school renewal and used a deconstruction process, ―exposing a concept as ideological or culturally constructed rather than as natural or a simple reflection

of reality‖ (Alcoff cited in Collins, 1990, p. 4). As we interacted with their stories, a deconstruction process was used tha aligned with Clandinin and Connelly‘s (1994) methods for the study of personal experiences: ―. . . simultaneously focused in four directions: inward and outward, backward and forward. By inward we mean the internal conditions of feelings, hopes, aesthetic reactions, moral dispositions, and so on. By outward we mean existential conditions, that is, the environment or what E. M. Bruner (1986) calls reality. By backward and forward we are referring to temporality, past, present, and future. To experience an experience is to experience it simultaneously in these four ways and to ask questions pointing each way‖ (p. 417). Making meaning began with theory and concepts, as St. Pierre (2015) suggested and much of our theorizing was guided by Foucault‘s (1978; 1980) notions of dangerous memories and the capillary function of power; ―. . . the point where power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives‖ (p. 39). Following theorizing about the experiences expressed in students‘ voices, we sought to identify themes in the video recording through enumerative and thematic coding (Grbich, 2013; Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2013) guided by a sociocultural approach coupled with the use of interpretive frameworks aligned to the elements of race, class, gender, ability, language, disabilities, sexual orientation, and expectations. We listened for these elements in the voices of students and how the elements were connected to dangerous memories connected to curriculum, instruction, and assessment; with attention to issues of power and privilege. As we proceeded with analysis, other meanings were illuminated in the data. Coding enabled us to ―retrieve and categorize similar data chunks so [we could] quickly find, pull out and cluster the segments relating to a particular research question…or theme‖ (Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2013, p. 72). Making meaning of the video images and context supported the selection of clips that best represent theory and concepts. The stories of students in our arts-based inquiry through the lens of CRT revealed their experiences in curriculum, instruction, and assessment; exposing a racialized form of teaching (Ladson-Billings, 2004) that is performed in spaces populated by poor students and students of color to ensure a diet of poor skills that prepare students to be cogs in the wheel of labor while their more affluent peers are trained to be leaders. Students hated worksheets and felt diminished by low level skills; they wanted more hands-on learning, project-based learning, and more choice. Thematic analysis led to an understanding of the students‘ stories within the context of urban schooling, demonstrating a ―broader interpretive framework that people use to make sense of everyday happenings/episodes, usually involving past-present-future linking‖ (Grbich, 2013, p. 221). While theorizing about the meanings that may be apparent in the video clips, it is important for the filmmaker to realize that each viewer of the documentary film makes their own meaning after listening to the stories of participants. The two documentary films produced by the co-authors have been

shared at professional organization conferences such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the American Educational Studies Association (AESA). The stories included in the What Kids Love and Hate about School (Friend & Caruthers, 2007) documentary film have been used as an instructional tool by educational leadership and teacher preparation faculty within higher education institutions, and as a professional development resource in school districts. After viewing the film and discussing the value of listening to students as part of a school leadership preparation program, one elementary school teacher described her response to the students talking about bullying: I know bullying is a problem in most schools; however, I have made it my goal to create a ridicule-free classroom. After viewing the video, I went to school and brought it up with my students during morning meeting. I told them about the video I watched and asked them if they ever feel this way at our school, even though we have talked about how to avoid it. I was shocked by the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; answers. They told me that bullying was not a problem in the classroom, but the playground, lunchroom, and bus was another story. This teacher told her college classmates that she talked with a bus driver regarding a particular bullying situation, and realized that a school leader needs to be responsible for involving all members of the school community to create a positive and safe learning environment. This belief and intervention on behalf of her students was informed by creating a space within her classroom to listen to the students talk about their experiences with bullying, sparked by the meaning that she had formed after viewing the documentary film.

6. Ethical Considerations In the United States there are protections in place to safeguard human subjects who participate in research investigations. Social Sciences Institutional Review Boards (SSIRBs) housed within higher education institutions have the authority to approve research study proposals. As scholars in the academy who embraced the opportunity to engage in documentary film as research, we initially presented our plans for the What Kids Love and Hate about School project to our universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s SSIRB. The innovative nature of our methods was debated among SSIRB members, and after a face-to-face questioning session with us, the SSIRB determined that our project did not conform to their definition of research. Instead of the Informed Consent procedures, we were directed to use a Media Release form that was approved by the legal department of our university. The SSIRB decision was that documentary filmmaking did not fall under their authority to approve human subjects research, therefore we have proceeded in our work by obtaining informed consent using the Media Release form with students who are over the age of 18, or with the parents or legal guardians of students who are under the age of 18, provided in the participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s native language. Technologies for video production now provide individuals who have little or no professional experience or educational preparation with the opportunity to create films that may or may not adhere to ethical standards. Popular platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo enable amateur and professional filmmakers alike to share their work with a global audience. The Internet also allows researchers engaged in documentary film production to communicate

with the general public, thus making research more attainable to the public (Gadanidis & Borba, 2013). Currently, viewers can choose from a plethora of web-based videos, reality television programs, and cable channels dedicated to broadcasting documentary films. According to Ellis (2012), ―This increase in the general level of appreciation of how documentary works has also led to sharply different judgements about its ethics. One person‘s acceptable technique is another person‘s unacceptable exploitation‖ (pp. 155-156). The researcher who engages in documentary film methods must question her own subjectivity and the choices that are made in each stage of the production process, as described by Friend and Militello (2015): ―The choices are seemingly infinite when determining points of entry during the pre-production phase of the project. Who will be filmed? Where will the filming take place, keeping in mind that the space needs to be large enough to provide depth of frame, and quiet enough to record high-quality audio. What questions will be asked during the interview? Will the researcher appear in front of the camera? Will the interview participant be filmed in a wide shot to include more context, a close-up to capture minute facial expressions, or both?‖ (p. 92). Schenkel (2014) examined the notion of ―truth and reality‖ in documentary filmmaking, including the ways in which ―techniques associated with fictional filmmaking [music, voiceover narration, etc.] can enhance a documentary‘s ability to present truth‖ (p. 70). Just as peer-reviewed journals publish text-based scholarship that meets a set of criteria that include ethical standards of research, there is a need for documentary filmmakers working in the field of education to adhere to rigorous standards of practice that protect participants in the filming. The Journal of Video Ethnography, a juried publication that began in the fall of 2014 title, is one example of a process for refereed publication of films. Similar to methods that gauge the impact of scholarly work published in journals, further work is needed to determine the impact of documentary films intended to illuminate issues of social justice in urban education. Portello (2014) posed the following question: ―Awards, audience demographics, social media activity, word-of-mouth feedback, legislation or policy change, rallies and other organized events, media appearances, donations to related charities, ubiquity on class syllabi—what data spells out a film's role in social change most clearly?‖ (p. 56). As seen with the film, Waiting for Superman, despite its media attention there was no impact in terms of new policies or equity of educational opportunities for youth attending urban schools. In order for positive and sustainable change to occur, filmmakers must address the intersections of race and poverty within urban educational settings in the United States.

7. Conclusion: Documentary Film as a Post-Modernist Project Positioning this project within a postmodernist perspective supports the premise that, ―language inevitably and inherently is built on the assumptions and worldview of the social group that has constructed it and the culture of

which it is a part‖ (Patton, 2015, p. 125). Deconstructionism is a postmodernist task, whereby one takes a text apart through deconstruction to reveal its critical assumptions and the ideologies it serves. Power and privilege are maintained through the control of the language, and those who have the most power decide what counts as knowledge. Amplifying the voices of those who are silenced and less powerful begins to erase powerful texts of deficit theories and stereotyping. Storytelling provide educators and students opportunities to collaboratively talk about difficult issues and things that matter. Underneath all stories is the paradigm of the personal for illuminating and understanding the perspectives of voice which can be used to liberate ourselves and others or to silence more vulnerable individuals. Bell‘s (2009) types of stories are theories about how people construct the genealogy of race and transmit the stories to others. Bell (2009) theorized that stories have individual and collective purposes giving us the chance to talk about ―issues that are usually seen as out there and separate from us, or that we are afraid to see as part of our lives, such as racism‖ (p. 109). Through working with a team of individuals wishing to explore how stories about racism are transmitted, Bell and team interviewed administrators, teachers, and individuals who worked in social service type careers. They collected 106 transcripts of the stories about race and theorized about four different story types contained in the data. The stories that White people told were generally about being color blind or not being racist; in contrast, the stories people of color told described how racism affected their lives. The teams‘ analyses of the stories led to four different types of stories; ―stock stories, concealed stories, resistance stories, and counter stories‖ (Bell, 2009, p. 108). Stock stories are hegemonic narratives that preserve the status quo. Bell (2009) states, ―I also think of stock stories as owning stock. That is, hegemonic stories are stock stories that give White people stock in society in terms of privilege and advantage --- stock that is not available to other folks‖ (p. 109). The second type of stories Bell (2009) describes as ―underneath the stock stories‖ (p. 112) are concealed stories that talk back to the stock stories. These stories are told from those on the margin, groups of people who live outside the dominant society. To hear the stories about racism from the margins means people must be invited to the center of mainstream conversations (Bell, 2009). The third type acknowledges that there are countless stories of individuals who have fought for decades to counter the stock stories and to promote equality. Many of these stories are grounded in local communities and have not received much attention in history books. Lastly, counter stories (Bell, 2009) drew on critical race theory (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004; Lynn & Parker, 2006) which aims to help others understand instances of racial inequity by listening to the stories shared by the people who experienced oppression (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Parker & Lynn, 2002). Through listening to counter stories those at the center learn about the experiences of people at the margins of the society telling the ―story of those experiences that have not been told . . . and used [as] a tool for analyzing and challenging the stories of those in power and whose story is a natural part of the dominant discourse‖ (Solorzano & Yosso, 2005, p. 72). Documentary film is not without tensions in the academy where quantitative methods still remain the dominant mode of research, and qualitative research often plays a secondary role to quantitative; even in mixed methods

designs, qualitative research is often viewed as an add-on. According to Haw and Hadfield (2011), ―The current discourses tend to position video in either purely a data collection tool or a methodological novelty capable of serving almost any purpose, the Swiss Army knife of qualitative research‖ (p. 2). Woo (2008) also suggests that just as documentary film may not be seen as ―scientific‖ enough, it is often viewed as not meeting the requirements of artistic expression by arts practitioners. Perhaps, what Woo (2008) has to say about making our work public for audiences is a much more moralistic responsibility of researchers toward their audiences: ―Whether we are researchers experimenting with different forms or acting as mentors to such researchers, we should not be paralyzed by prevailing notions of quality. Rather we should take the heat when our work does not find an appreciative audience and assess for ourselves whether the criticism can fuel better in the future‖ (p. 326). The audience that Woo references is an audience that is beyond the academic community which requires creating forms of work that others are enticed to engage with and learn from. As Petrarca and Hughes (2014) contend, the audience should extend beyond the academic community and clarify abstractions and complexities that are often difficult to derive from text. One such example from our documentary film involved a fourth-grade student who wanted to transform the basement of the school into a roller skating rink where students could go after they finished their work. While this wish could not be fulfilled, her desire to be more engaged in learning through an activity called ‗rocket math‘ was communicated to the teachers to reinforce pedagogical practices that many students found motivating and that were correlated to improved mathematics achievement results. This same school also had an anti-bullying policy that was not working, according to the stories shared by students, which led to transformative conversations among students and educators to address pervasive bullying issues in their elementary school. Petrarca and Hughes (2014) argue that the ―academy ought to consider documentary film as an alternative form of scholarly work and knowledge outside the wall of the university‖ (p. 575). They suggest that one way to do this is to align film work with traditional research as a way to support its claim as scholarly work; in other words, film work should be ―framed within a research context‖ (p. 576). They ask, ―Again, how do we deal with the traditionalists? How do we convince them that this is research?‖ (p. 577). More befitting is St. Pierre‘s (2015) criticism, introduced earlier in the paper, that we have overworked qualitative research to the extent that it blocks our thinking and we can‘t see the new. She insists that ―in conventional humanist qualitative methodology, to be is to know‖ (p. 77); and while this work is not new, ontological issues were captured earlier in the work of poststructural theorists such as Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, and others. The current work has been termed ―as affect theory (Gregg & Seigworth, 2010), thing theory (Brown, 2001), actor network theory (Latour, 2005), assemblage theory (De Landa, 2006) . . . , the new empiricism, and the posthuman (Braidotti, 2013)‖ (St. Pierre, 2015, p. 77). An urgent question, according to Woo (2008) is, ―How can education research (whether arts-based or science-based) be sufficiently

persuasive to stand on its own outside traditional research venues?‖ (p 326). We contend that adopting the new empiricism is one way of moving documentary film to a home of its own.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 48-60, May 2016

Teachers’ Professional Knowledge: The case of Variability Sylvain Vermette Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada

Abstract. In this research, we explore teachers’ statistical knowledge in relation with variability. Several high school mathematics teachers were presented with situations describing how students dealt with tasks based on the concept of variability. The teachers’ responses primarily helped us to analyze their comprehension and practices associated with the concept of variability and also to gain insight on how to teach this concept. Secondly, the study shows that students and high school teachers share the same conceptions on this subject. Keywords: teaching statistics; variability; professional knowledge; conceptions of variability.

INTRODUCTION The importance of statistics in our lives is such that data management has become a major key in the education of responsible citizens (Konold and Higgins, 2003). The abundance of statistical data available on the internet, the studies reported on the T.V. news, or the studies and survey results published in newspapers and magazines all show that nowadays, citizens must have analytical skills in order to develop critical judgement and a personal assessment of the data they are confronted with daily. The high amount of statistics in our society leads us to consider teaching this discipline in order to train our so-called citizens of tomorrow. If the goal is to encourage statistical thinking in students as future citizens, then not only do we need to teach basic statistical data interpretation skills, but it is also essential to teach variability. This is the foundation or statistical thinking if statistics are defined as the variability of natural and social events in our surrounding world (Wozniak, 2005).

STATISTICS, THE SCIENCE OF VARIABILITY We live in a world characterized by variability. Let’s take the example of a business that manages an urban public transit system. It may announce that its trains will arrive at the different stations every ten minutes. However, any

regular transit user knows that in reality, arrival times vary and schedules are not always strictly respected. The time intervals are unequal and this lack of uniformity is the manifestation of variability. Moreover, the variable amount of travellers must also be considered. This variable reflects more or less predictable changes of schedules, seasons and the random daily variability for a given hour. In short, as shown in this example among others, variability is reflected by the absence of determinism. The complexity of the phenomena, due to the number of variables involved, is the source of this variability and of the observed variations. In the public transit example, studying the phenomenon in all its variability ensures a generally satisfying and consistent service by planning the required trains’ capacity and a variable but reasonable delay between train runs. Recognizing the variable nature of an event is also acknowledging that the results may fluctuate and be unpredictable according to sample variations. It means leaving the world of certainty and thus being able to use statistical methods to somewhat control certainty to estimate, predict and decide within and acceptable risk margin. This is often considered the main issue of statistical reasoning (Allmond and Makar, 2014; González, 2014; Vergne, 2004). A better understanding of variability helps to identify the exceptional or, conversely, to avoid false interpretations of two different results possibly based on the same law of probability. The concept of variability is also essential to hypothesis tests and statistic inference; it distinguishes statistical reasoning from reasoning associated with other areas of academic mathematics (Gattuso, 2011). Inferential statistics or statistical inference helps make general observations and draw conclusions on a given population based on random sample data collected within this same population. The difficulty in this process is finding out to what extent the sample accurately represents the population it was collected from. In other words, how can we identify the unknown values or population parameters from the sample data? In order to illustrate this difficulty, let’s imagine all possible size n samples drawn from a given population. It would be possible to calculate different varying statistics for each sample (average, variance, etc.). Therefore, any inference from a single sample necessarily comes with a probabilistic uncertainty due to sample fluctuations. The concept of variability refers to these sample fluctuations which generally decrease as the sample size increases. For example, by trying to estimate the average distance between school and the home of 30 students in a classroom from a sample of 5 people, the estimate would depend on the identity of the 5 sampled students. If 15 out of the 30 students were sampled, there would probably not be as much variation between samples as if the sample had been 5 out of the 30 possible students. In short the concept of statistical variability refers both to sample fluctuations shown in the differences between samples drawn from one population and to the statistical data dispersion which can be evaluated, among other ways, with the use of dispersion measures which show data variation in a distribution. Based on the foregoing, it is essential to teach the concept of variability in order to develop students’ statistical thinking. It is also appropriate to study teachers’ knowledge of this concept as they support students and organize teaching by creating environments conducive to learning (Sánchez, da Silva and Coutinho,

2012). Nowadays, statistical training for teachers is one of the most important research fields in mathematics didactics. The ICOTS (International Conference on Teaching Statistics) is exclusively dedicated to teaching statistics. They have developed studies on the growing interest for training primary and secondary school teacher with respect to understanding the statistical concepts they teach. This purpose would allow to further develop what Skemp (1978) identifies as a relational comprehension of mathematics which can be translated into the howto and why knowledge. These results raise important questions regarding the nature of statistical experiments which teachers may encounter during their professional training. However, before developing and offering beneficial training opportunities for teachers, it is necessary to understand how teachers comprehend statistics. Therefore, we decided to present an exploratory answer to the following question: what professional knowledge do high school mathematics teacher have about the concept of variability?

PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE: FROM MATHEMATICS KNOWLEDGE BASED ON PRACTICE TO STATISTICAL KNOWLEDGE BASED ON PRACTICE. Recent development on teachers’ professional knowledge shows that this knowledge is based on the practice of teaching and is therefore related to situations from the teaching/learning context (Bednarz and Proulx, 2009; Davis and Simmt, 2006; González, 2014). Based on the works of Shulman (1988) and Ball and colleagues (Ball, Thames and Phelps, 2008; Hill, Ball and Schilling, 2008), we need to address the content and pedagogical aspects of teachers’ knowledge. Content knowledge is how a specialist understands a specific field’s subject matter. Pedagogical content knowledge is the ability to introduce and explain a subject going beyond content knowledge and focusing on a different dimension; understanding for teaching (Clivaz, 2014; Depaepe, Verschaffel, and Kelchtermans, 2013; Holm and Kajander, 2012; Proulx, 2008). Pedagogical content knowledge helps teachers understand what makes it easy or difficult for students to learn specific content and they rely on their own experience to help students with misconceptions and difficulties. Pedagogical content knowledge reflects the ability to organize and manage students’ activities in the classroom so they may be introduced to the elements of a targeted mathematical knowledge (Bloch, 2009; Hauk, Toney, Jackson, Nair and Tsay, 2013, 2014). In view of the above, it is possible to separate these two types of knowledge; however, in practice, they are interrelated and very hard to distinguish (Even and Tirosh, 1995). This perspective is in line with the conceptualization of professional mathematics based on the works of Moreira and David (2005), Proulx and Bednarz (2011), who differentiate academic and school mathematics as two separate knowledge fields. For example, in teaching/learning mathematical concepts, several events occur such as reasoning and understanding the concept, dealing with difficulties and errors, using problem solving strategies, encountering various representations (standardized or not) to express solutions, exploring new questions and avenues etc. These mathematical occurrences not only refer to current concepts in curricular documents, which dictate what must be taught, but also refer to mathematical elements that are

part of teaching/learning mathematics which the teacher must use in class (Hauk & al., 2013, 2014). The teacher’s professional mathematics knowledge refers to a body of knowledge and mathematical practices built on teaching/learning mathematics issues (Bednarz and Proulx, 2010; González, 2014). This mathematical orientation based on practice, where we don’t seek to distinguish content knowledge from pedagogical content knowledge, is the essence of the present research.

METHODOLOGY This study adopts the exploratory research focused on issues related to teaching statistics. Case studies (Yin, 2003) were developed to help answer the research question. Interviews and previously prepared questions based on specific tasks accomplishment were used as methods to collect data from teachers’ answers and to better understand their ability to teach this concept. Twelve Quebec high school mathematic teachers were interviewed. The interviews were conducted at the end of the school year so these teachers had already seen a statistics module with their students. It was a two-step experiment. First, each teacher had to read an information letter inviting them to participate in the research project. It also briefly introduced the concept of variability and the purpose of the study. Introducing the concept of variability was necessary since it is not expressly defined in the Quebec school curriculum. The following definitions were presented: -- The aim of the study is to explore how the concept of variability is taken into account while teaching. -- The concept of variability refers, among other things, to the dispersion of data in a distribution and to sample fluctuations. -- The possibility to quantify a distribution’s variability by using dispersion measures such as the range, interquartile range and standard deviation. This resulted in an interview where teachers were presented with cases involving the concept of variability. These consisted in analyzing the teaching curricula, reflecting on the learner’s appropriation of the content by analyzing students’ solutions and reasoning, and consequently to propose possible interventions to improve mathematical reasoning and understanding. These terms provided information on the teachers’ professional knowledge which is directly related to mathematics teaching and learning and to their classroom practices. As an illustration, the following two cases show examples of teachers faced with a student’s answer and reasoning. These were built upon the analyses of statistical contents related to the concept of variability (didactical, conceptual and epistemological analysis; Brousseau, 1998) and inspired by analyses performed in this field (Reading and Shaughnessy, 2004; Delmas and Liu, 2005; Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Lee, 2005; Cooper and Shore, 2008).

Case example1 Students are each presented with a wheel as in Figure 1 below. The teacher asks them to do 5 series of 50 spins counting the number of times the arrow stops in the shaded area for each series. One student, finding this too long, decides to turn the wheel five times and multiply the result by 10 for each series. What is your opinion on this strategy and how would you respond?

Figure1: Counting Wheel

This case shows variability in a probabilistic sampling context. Teachers were presented with a situation based on a student’s misconception which was to not consider the sample size as if it had no impact on the results’ variability. The student thought that the results would be the same for all 10 repetitions. By the end of high school, some students use this proportional reasoning to link samples sizes to the population’s proportion (Reading and Shaughnessy, 2004). In this case, after getting 4 shaded areas after 5 rotations, a student may deduct that he or she could also get 40 shaded areas after 50 rotations. However, as the sample size increases, the features of a random sample resemble the statistical features of the population. Therefore, the variability of a size 5 sample is greater than a size 50 sample. It is also important to note that by using this strategy, it is impossible for the student to obtain the value corresponding to the theoretical probability (50% of the shaded areas). The student’s approach doesn’t allow for more precision because it is possible to obtain, at best, two shaded areas for three unshaded areas or vice versa.

Adapted from Watson, Kelly, Callingham & Shaughnessy, 2003.

Case example 22 The charts below show the height of 7th grade students from two different schools of 93 students each. Which chart shows the greatest variability in students’ height? Reasoning differently, two students offer the same conclusion: school B’s chart shows a greater variability. The first student uses the fact that school B’s bar chart has an oscillating pattern. The second student thinks school A’s bar chart almost symmetrical and concludes that school B’s chart shows greater variability. Tell us what you think of the students’ answers? Which reasoning do you prefer? How would you respond to each student?

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165

Number of Students

School A

Student's Height (in cm)

Chart 1: School A's representation of students' height.

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165

Number of Students

School B

Student's Height (in cm)

Chart 2: School B's representation of students' height.

Adapted from Canada, 2004.

Here, data dispersion in both charts highlights the concept of variability. Both student’s reasoning (for a task based on student’s misconceptions) seen in this case are based on the works of Cooper and Shore (2008), Delmas and Liu (2005) and Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Lee (2005). These authors indicated that some students are influenced by the distribution’s shape when interpreting the variability of data distribution on a bar chart or histogram. The first student was influenced by the variation in school B’s bar heights. This refers more to the frequency variability rather than the variability of the subjects’ height. The second student was influenced by the symmetry shown in school A’s chart. The distribution’s symmetry is not in indicator of variability. Both cases aimed at seeing how the teachers dealt with the students’ conception of variability in order to better understand the type of interventions they would choose. Depending on the teachers’ answers, further questioning occurred during the interview in order to obtain clarifications and a deeper understanding of the professional statistical knowledge that teachers used in relation with the concept of variability. However, the interviewer’s position differed from the teachers’; therefore no explanation was offered during the interview. Finally, the interviews were taped and the teachers and interviewers comments were transcribed before being analyzed. An inductive analysis process was favoured in order to identify categories from procedures identified by the researcher during the analytical process (Blais and Martineau, 2006).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Two types of interventions resulted from the research; explanation and confrontation. The first one, explanation, involves reasoning to clarify concepts while answering questions. Here, students don’t reflect, research or validate their knowledge. The second one, confrontation, highlights students’ wrong reasoning and forces them to review and correct their conceptions. Nowadays, the cognitive conflict contribution in teaching mathematics is obvious, several authors have demonstrated the interest to challenge students’ perceptions to improve their comprehension (e.g. Behr and Harel, 1990; Pratt, 1998; Steffe, 1990; Watson, 2007). The following illustrates this type of intervention base on the previous study cases. Case example 1 Here, eight teachers responded to the issue of sample size. Explanation One teacher explained how the sampling size affected the sampling fluctuations. This teacher expressed knowledge related to conceptual issues and translated into an explanation to the student. Confrontation Two teachers proposed that in order to preserve reality, the students should experiment with different size series and compare the results. These teachers showed experimentation based knowledge by exploring the impact of the sample size on the results’ variability.

Three other teachers showed students an extreme result (associating two results of zero shaded areas obtained after turning the wheel five or fifty times). One more teacher responded by exaggerating the student’s reasoning. This teacher had the student use the same method but turning the wheel three times instead of five. The shaded areas’ percentage will move away from the theoretical probability of 50% as the student is only able to obtain one out of two shaded area or vice-versa. One teacher suggested a different context to avoid results being transferred from a small sample to a larger one by proportional reasoning: “By rolling a six-sided dice 5 times I would not obtain the six possible results, but if I multiply my results by 10, I could only get five different results. While this is not impossible it is highly improbable i.e. 50 rolls would produce each possible result at least once”. To confront the student, these teachers used their knowledge of counterexamples and the variables used to build it; the results of an experiment the number of experimentations and the context. In this situation, some teachers were not able to see the sample size issue. Of the four teachers, three accepted the student’s reasoning while the fourth one refused it by pointing out that the directions had not been observed. Case example 2 Seven out of twelve teachers responded to student’s mistakes. Explanation Four teachers explained the problem needed to be solved horizontally and not vertically. They showed this by opposing the variability in sizes and frequencies. Confrontation One teacher thought the distribution shape may influence the students and so suggested to tabulate the values differently. Two teachers used counter examples suggesting a symmetrical distribution to show a low variability even though the bars varied greatly in height: “With 14 students 153 cm tall, another 14 students 155 cm tall and 2 students 154 cm tall, the graph show a symmetrical distribution with high and low bars. Is there a big height difference? No as all students almost measure the same”. For this task, some teachers expressed knowledge of the conceptual issue by identifying the disruptive role of the graphic aspect. This knowledge was translated into explanations to students either by an alternative presentation of the problem (transition to numbers) or by giving them a counter example. Obviously, as it happened in the first case, some teachers were unable to identify the error, or at least recognize that the students’ reasoning was mistaken. Five teachers accepted the students’ wrong reasoning. One teacher valued the first reasoning more because of the greater variation of school B’s bars heights. He associated the height of the bars with the height of students instead of with the frequency, thus focusing on the variability of the frequencies rather than on the variability of the variable which in this case was the students’ heights. Two other teachers valued the second reasoning pretexting that school B’s graphic representation looked like a bell shape associated with the regular law thus to an almost symmetrical distribution. According to them, a large variability is

associated with a distribution shape which deviates from normalcy. As for the remainder, they simply noted that they couldn’t disagree as they were confused by the reasoning. It is fascinating to see the variety of interventions brought forward by the teachers and even more interesting to notice that when interpreting variability, conceptions previously observed in pupils and university students are also shared by high school teachers. In a sampling context, some teachers confirmed the use of proportional reasoning to link the sample proportions to the population proportions, as if the sample sizes did not impact the results variability, and by the same token, disregarded the samples variations. It seems reasonable to believe that the difficulty in acknowledging variability may be due, in part, to school books which contain very few questions leading to the analysis of sample fluctuations and to the interpretation of uncertainty in favor of exercises of a more determinist nature with a focus, for example, on calculating the different statistical measures. When asked to interpret the distribution of variability from a graphic representation, some teachers were influenced by aspects associated to the distribution shape: 

Variability as a variation of the bars heights: The variation of the bar heights in a bar chart or in a histogram become an indicator of the distribution’s variability; the more the bars heights vary, the greater the variability. This is a misconception of variability.



Variability as a deviation from normalcy: The variability of a distribution is determined by its resemblance or not to the Gauss curve, the Normal; a low variability is associated to the normal shape. This is a misconception of variability.



Variability as an asymmetrical distribution: The variability of a distribution is determined by its symmetry which in turn is associated to a low variability. This is a misconception of variability.

The resemblance in students and teachers errors is surprising. It shows a complex phenomenon related to statistics which we must understand. Common conceptions of variability seem to interfere with the notion of concept statistics. For example, it may be conceivable to associate uniformity to what varies little. This justification refers to a common language meaning and differs from the idea of statistical concept.

CONCLUSION Although statistics is increasingly present in school programs, teacher training programs in universities give it very little attention. For example, in Quebec universities teacher training programs, no class is generally and exclusively dedicated to teaching statistics, which is not the case, notably, for geometry or algebra. This leads us to believe that mathematics teacher training regarding statistical concepts is minimal. This raises important questions on the nature of statistical experiments which teachers must perform during their professional training; the same questions apply to students. At the same time, we see a growing awareness that teachers use specific forms of knowledge, other than the

standard ones learned in their university mathematics classes (Moreira and David, 2005; Proulx and Bednarz, 2010, 2011). This interaction between statistics training and classroom practice is at the core of the research project presented in this article. This research is based on teachers’ comprehension and practices in a statistical context through the exploration of various cases rooted in their practice context and by calling upon the concept of variability which is at the heart of statistical thinking. In the proposed cases, teachers were faced with students’ answers and reasoning which highlighted variability related concepts. It is believed that concepts knowledge related to a particular notion helps teachers to plan their work well to organize and manage students’ activity in the classroom in order for these students to learn the elements of a targeted mathematical knowledge. Results gave way to considerations for future teacher training. Of course, the variety of interventions brought forward by these results is a starting point for ideas that could be used in class and also for future teachers training. Some interventions were proven more creative, while establishing good conditions for students to identify their errors. More importantly is the realization that some teachers could readily react to students’ answers and thinking by suggesting appropriate interventions whereas others couldn’t. This context raises concerns and highlights the need to improve teaching statistics to teachers in order to continually improve their ability to intervene in the classroom in a statistical context and to develop student’s statistical thinking. The interest to focus on teachers’ professional knowledge in a statistical context and on the way they use it in class is even more important as we notice that, in their practice, teachers recognize more and more knowledge forms that are different from the standard ones they learned in math class in university. It is necessary to expand this knowledge so it can be remembered and used by the teachers at the appropriate moment in their practice. Research on student learning is obviously necessary for creating learning situations built on a teaching/learning context. It would allow teachers to become comfortable with how students reason in a statistical context. Teachers would learn how to intervene to improve students’ reasoning and mathematical knowledge. This mathematics orientation based on the practice of statistics is at the heart of our research on teaching statistics. It does not refer to mathematics per say which are disconnected and not set in a practice context.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 61-77, May 2016

Can the Clubs finally „lift the rock‟? Assessing the Sustainability of Reform in Greek Education System Konstantinos Karampelas University of the Aegean Rhodes, Greece Abstract. This study focuses on a new institution implemented in the Greek education system. Known as „clubs‟, this innovation addresses pupils who have a talent and special interest in a particular subject. The research context is a primary school in Greece, where clubs were run during the last three years. The literature shows, however, that reforms are not easily implemented in established educational contexts and the Greek education system is no exception. The main barriers to reform are school structure and culture. Through a qualitative approach, the study explores whether this innovation can be sustainable in this particular context, by answering three basic research questions: 1) Is there acceptance of the need for the clubs by the members of the education community?, 2) Are the school structures assisting in the implementation of the reform?, 3) Is the existing evaluation procedure adequate to support educators in their efforts to improve the clubs‟ function in future? The findings show that the reform can be implemented despite the challenges presented by the school context. Key words: Gifted and Talented Education, Innovation, Evaluation,

Introduction This study focuses on a reform, a new institution implemented in Greek schools. According to previous research, the implementation of reforms in the Greek education system is not generally successful. Kazamias et al. (2002) compared the effort involved in reforming the Greek education system to the mythical task of Sisyphus, who tried desperately to push a rock to the top of a hill, only to find that it would roll down to the bottom again, requiring him to begin his task again. The subject of this study, namely the description of perspectives on an innovation and its evaluation, can be related to the possibility of the implementers finally being able to „lift the rock to the top‟, in other words to create a sustainable reform. The concept of sustainability reflects the level of implementation needed to ensure the survival of this innovation in a specific educational system, thereby helping to improve its function. The evaluation of sustainability is based on current theories of education management (Foskett & Lumby, 2003; Kelly, 2004; Fullan, 2007; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016).

According to current approaches to school management and also to current learning theories, an educational organization is an open system that interacts continuously with the wider complex environment. Any suggestion for improvement that refers to a specific educational context aims to improve the organization‟s ability to promote useful knowledge. It also aims at the long lasting development of a flexible educational environment, lending it the ability to improve in an ongoing sense (Everard et al, 2004; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015). Any school organization that can respond effectively to suggestions for reform is by definition a flexible and creative learning community. Cooperative relationships that develop between its members, human interactions within its internal structures, the new knowledge constructed, and the experience transmitted within its context, constitute the intellectual capital of this community (Kelly, 2004). Through these processes the school administration can effectively manage reform and use it as an opportunity to promote new values, in other words to innovate (Drucker, 1999). In any learning community, teachers, as the human intellectual capital and as „moral agents of reform‟ (Fullan, 2007), should be able to act, through the use of skills, knowledge and experience, on the improvement of the school and the wider learning environment (Everard et al., 2004; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015). It was within this framework that the „clubs‟ were planned. The clubs were instituted in Greece‟s Experimental Primary Schools. These are state schools that differ from mainstream states as they aim to promote research and serve as pilot context for innovative teaching practices. Even though, these characteristics are apparent to every school in Greece, Experimental schools are expected to focus on these more. In fact, teachers who desire to work in experimental schools are evaluated according to their academic criteria, such as studies, research experience, whereas in mainstream schools it is social criteria that matter most such as family status and years of experience. Additionally, experimental schools are supervised and linked, in terms of function, research and teaching with specific University Departments, mainly of Education Studies. Specifically, all experimental schools are managed by a council, the head of which is an academic from these departments. This council evaluates the implementation of innovative practices, such as the Clubs, which were introduced during the school year 2012-2013, according to Law 3966/2011, with the aim of promoting pupils‟ particular skills and talents in specific areas of study. The clubs also represent an effort to adjust school functions to the needs and particularities of the local community, by providing educators with the flexibility to choose teaching units, learning materials, and educational approaches. They provide further opportunities for local authorities and organizations to be involved in the work of the school. Selection of subject areas for the clubs, as well as deciding which pupils participate, takes place at school level, as the legislation requires.

The sustainability of the clubs, as well as any new institution in an educational context, is defined and described through the continuous evaluation of the institution (Fullan, 2007). The aim of the current study is to assess this sustainability. Moreover, evaluation of the clubs is required by law; to be effective and accurate, it must examine three main parameters:  The theories around educational innovation.  The theories around gifted and talented education children, within the context of a learning organization.  The research context.

Innovation in Education: Applicability and Sustainability of New Institutions The Challenge of Reform in Educational Realities In common with any effort to introduce new institutions and educational perspectives in a school context, reform is a complex phenomenon. Schools adopt a series of aims and goals in order to meet the demands of modern society. Such aims require the adoption of new educational institutions, activities and approaches and their adaptation to the knowledge society (Foskett & Lumby, 2003). A common element is the formation of new teaching models that empathize the importance of cultural context, differentiation, personal choice, interaction, uncertainty, and knowledge construction, based on the principles of authentic pedagogy (Roelofs & Terwel 1999). There is a flow of new learning theories based on cooperative and experiential teaching strategies and the principle of the connection of new knowledge with previous experience (Foskett & Lumby, 2003). Criticism of traditional practices leads to continuous transformation of the relationships between members of the educational community. The relationship between educators and learners changes. The educator is no longer considered to transmit knowledge but rather to coordinate and assist pupils in their efforts to construct knowledge and develop socially. The approach of learning as a result of experience, information, and interaction, affects teaching just as it affects any general activity in the educational environment (Roelofs & Terwel, 1999). The perception that knowledge is constructed by educators is based on a model of the learning community (Fullan, 2007) within which learners act, teachers support and help, and headteachers become pedagogical leaders, so that knowledge will be constructed as a product of continuous interaction. Members of the educational community therefore seek opportunities to improve school functions. Reform is the sum of all the planned actions through which these desired improvements are achieved. Reform can be considered a chaotic phenomenon, with unpredictable results in educational structures. However, any proposed reform goes through four different stages: a) initiation, which includes the decision to reform, b) implementation, which includes application in the reality of the school, c) the institutionalization of the reform and its

establishment as a significant part of the educational system, and d) the evaluation of its results. The sustainability of reform depends on its capacity to improve the quality of the education. Through the prism of the current theoretical approach, this is analyzed in relation to its limitations and especially in regard to its impact on the learning environment, its impact on the roles of agents, and finally its impact on learning outcomes (Fullan 2007; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016).

Gradual Transformation in the Educational Environment The impact of reform in the educational environment depends on the extent of the reform, itself an intriguing field of research. On the one hand, large-scale reforms, known as systemic reforms, aim to improve educational institutions and hence their function (Oâ&#x20AC;&#x; Day & Smith, 1991). Systemic reform is based on the assumption that knowledge gained at school has long-lasting effects, from which the whole community expects multiple benefits (Foskett & Lumby, 2003). Systemic reform relates school knowledge to social and cultural development and to the experience, skills and attitudes of individuals. On the other hand, smaller-scale more limited reform is also possible. In this case the aim is not necessarily significantly socio-economic and there is no suggestion of radical reform of the system and its structures. The value of such reform rests firstly on the fact that it promises to improve relatively easily minor deficiencies in the educational system, and secondly on the fact that it might serve as a stimulus for greater reform later on. Both paradigms of education reform have been observed in practice. Because the effectiveness of a reform is identified through its impact on the educator and the wider social environment, its extent remains a subject of considerable debate (Foskett & Lumby, 2003; Fullan, 2007).

Teachers as Change Agents Teachers have an important role to play in educational change. They are in particular central to any reform that emphasizes the improvement and enrichment of a schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x;s functioning and hence the educating role of the school. Ideally, they should share the vision inspiring the reform and therefore understand its necessity. Implementation of innovation in the everyday reality of a school is more effective in a flexible learning environment where educators can have training and opportunities to enhance their technical knowledge (Fullan, 2007; Conway & Andrews, 2016). By participating in knowledge production, educators have the opportunity to influence reform and related decision-making. By taking advantage of all the opportunities that the environment offers them, they should be able to find information and coaching on teaching interventions. This should allow them to work though the challenges that accompany the implementation of reform such as limited time, equipment, financial support and training, so that they can implement the reform successfully (Everard et al, 2004; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016).

Teachers can also draw on their experience and share knowledge about the reform with other members of the educational community. In such a way they can assist in initiatives that improve school climate. The improvement of school management and the learning environment is a complex process that demands continuous interactions, not only between educators, but also between members of the broader educational community that take part in decision-making including defining the principles behind planned reforms. Since educators know perhaps better than anyone the reality of the school and classroom, they have not only the right but also the obligation to cooperate in processes of curriculum reform and related decision-making (Taba, 1962; Foskett & Lumby, 2003; Fullan, 2007). All these processes, training opportunities, and exchanges of ideas and experiences to inform the planning of reforms, connect to the flow of information and constitute the communication that develops within a learning community (Kelly, 2004; Fullan, 2007; Earl & Timperley, 2015; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015).

Evaluation of Structure and Process According to Fullan (2007), applications of an educational reform, no matter what the type, extent or the education system in which they are applied, should have a deep impact on the educational system including at the classroom level and on the educational culture if the reform is to be systemic and sustainable. Similarly, Hargreaves and Fink (2000) agree that a systemic reform should include the following three dimensions: 1. It needs to have depth, which means it should change ideas and perceptions about the role of the schools at a fundamental level, or be compatible with existing deeply held views. 2. It needs to have width, which means it needs to influence all the structures of school organization, or be compatible with existing structures. 3. Finally, it needs to have length, which implies an aspiration to longlasting goals and aims. The foregoing conceptual framework makes the evaluation of educational reform a necessary task in order to draw conclusions about its effectiveness and to generalize about the need for such reform (Earl & Timperley, 2015; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016). Evaluation is, however, important for the educator as it is not only a form of assessment but also an opportunity to present his or her experience about the implementation of new structures and processes in education and thus influence future action (Fullan, 2007). Although selfevaluation is often preferred it should be borne in mind that basic criteria affecting the evaluation design are the initial goal and the legal context of the innovation. Alongside these are also the criteria of the education outcome, learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x; attendance rates, learning tasks and teaching and learning strategies.

Education of Gifted and Talented Children within an Existing Mainstream Educational Organization Research on the education of gifted and talented children has a history dating back more than 100 years. Many theories have been proposed regarding the appropriate way to teach children that demonstrate talents or gifts in particular subjects. However, there is limited knowledge about the applicability of these theories (Ziegler et al, 2012). First it is important to define giftedness. According to Subotnik et al. (2011, pp.7): “Giftedness is the manifestation of performance or production that is clearly at the upper end of the distribution in a talent domain even relative to that of other high-functioning individuals in that domain. Further, giftedness can be viewed as developmental, in that in the beginning stages, potential is the key variable; in later stages, achievement is the measure of giftedness; and in fully developed talents, eminence is the basis on which this label is granted. Psychosocial variables play an essential role in the manifestation of giftedness at every developmental stage. Both cognitive and psychosocial variables are malleable and need to be deliberately cultivated.” The uniqueness of this approach to giftedness lies in the emphasis placed on psychological and social factors, which have enjoyed less importance in other definitions. In addition to this approach, the American Union of Research on Gifted Children states that such children can have skill in a variety of domains, such as intellectual ability, artistic ability, leadership skills, creativity, and inventiveness in certain scientific-cognitive areas (National Association for Gifted Children, 2008). The point of agreement among all the groups that have tried to define giftedness is that it defines and is defined through three basic characteristics. These are  General knowledge and skills higher than average.  Creativity, and  Ability to execute complex tasks effectively. Rinn (2012), bearing the above in mind, identifies three main questions. The first has to do with the dimensions of giftedness that are linked with teaching of gifted and talented children. The second has to do with the possibility of quantifying these, and the third is connected with the suggested relevant teaching interventions. With regard to the first question, the main parameters suggested are motivation, persistence, effort, and intention for deeper study, general interest, social relationships, intention to experiment, and the ability to overcome complex challenges. All these parameters, according to Rinn (2012), should be evaluated in relation to academic ability.

There is no clearly generalizable answer to the second question, which regards the ability to quantify these parameters. It is likely to depend on each case and its particular characteristics. Lastly, with regard to the third question on the most appropriate teaching interventions, there is general agreement that teaching talented children is achieved in three phases. The first includes identification of the talents and interests of learners by teachers. The second phase includes the promotion and development of relevant knowledge and skills. The third phase includes the motivation of the learners to develop their own approach, theory, and method in the field in which they are talented. The school also needs to be in continuous cooperation with parents or any other group or organization that specializes in different fields and can assist with the learning (Kelly, 2004; Rinn, 2012).

The Research Context Clubs as an Innovation in Greek Elementary Education In a model experimental primary school in Greece there are clubs running in various fields. Some can be linked to science, such as the Maths Club, the Science Club, the Geography Club, the Environmental Club and the ICT (information and communications technology) Club. Others can be linked to arts such as the Reading Club, the Arts Club, the Local History Club, the English Club and the Cinema Club. There is also a Dance Club and a Volleyball Club. The establishment of the Clubs began in accordance with the relevant law, after the teachers‟ board had agreed to it at the end of the academic year 2011-2012. The initial plan included details about the subjects of the clubs, the timetables, the educators involved, the syllabus and the learning activities. This initial plan was approved, as required, by the Central Council of Model Experimental Schools of Greece, which is based in Athens. The approval was followed by a dissemination of information about the clubs to parents and learners through the school‟s website and during parents‟ evenings. At the same time, the innovation was promoted through the local authorities so that parents and learners from other schools who might also be interested would be informed and able to apply and participate in Clubs of their interest. As soon as applications from learners to join the clubs had been submitted these were reviewed and learners were selected for the clubs. Pupil selection, as suggested in the literature (Cropley, 1993; Subotnik et al, 1996; Rin, 2012) and required by the law 3966/2011, was based on mostly testing. The test included questions based on pupils‟ knowledge, skills and general ideas. All these were linked to the topics that the Club would emphasize on. Parents also cooperated, as they expressed their opinions about which club could be suitable for their children and they filled in the forms for their children‟s participation. The same law states that each pupil can participate in a maximum of two clubs. During the first year, 76 pupils participated in at least one club. During the

second year, when more clubs where run, 89 pupils participated. During the third year, 78 pupils took part. Finally, during the fourth year, 92 pupils attended clubs. Overall, 212 pupils were members of a club (many pupils participated in clubs for more than one year). It was a legal requirement that the teachers in charge of the clubs submitted an evaluation report at the end of the first and second semester. These reports normally contained an assessment of the clubs, the lesson plans, data from all the activities that took place, or even interviews with parents and pupils based on their impressions of the clubs.

Processes of Educational Change in Greece: The Myth of Sisyphus The myth of Sisyphus comes from Greek mythology. As Homer in describes, Sisyphus, was a wise and prudent king who was condemned to roll a heavy rock to the top of a hill ceaselessly for having stolen the secrets of the gods. When reaching the top of the hill, the rock would roll down and Sisyphus would have to start pushing it up again. The tragic element of this myth is that its hero is a conscious human, exerting much effort but accomplishing nothing. According to Andreas Kazamias et al (2002), a challenge similar to the punishment of Sisyphus, is apparent in every attempt for educational reform in Greece, as all such attempts end up being long, unsuccessful and incomplete. Even though there is a recognized need for change, the Greek educational system, has a way of returning to the past, again and again. This metaphor has a political dimension, which addresses to the bureaucratic and centralized nature of the Greek state. It also has a cultural dimension which addresses to a school‟s autonomy, and the socio-economic dimension. Over the years several forces for change have arisen in Greek society. Examples of such are globalization, advances in information and communications technology, research findings, new learning paradigms, and the influence of the European Community. The need for innovation is recognized, but the education system resists change. Most European Educational systems provide a variety of paths offering progress from one level of education to the next. In the Greek educational system, however, this process generally follows a vertical „one-way‟ process, where each educational level serves as a preparatory stage for the next. Educational achievements are highly desired by the Greek family. Parents tend to motivate children to achieve the highest possible education level. Reforms focusing on modern learning approaches and pedagogies do not seem to be of much interest unless they are associated with the intensive preparation of learners to face a highly competitive environment at the secondary level. No matter how useful the reform might be, it is expected to fail if the system orientation remains exam-centred, centrally designed, and based on traditional ways of transferring rather than constructing knowledge (Kazamias et al, 2002). This resistance to change is likely to emerge in the case of the Clubs as well. The reform of the Clubs aims to provide and institutionalize opportunities for gifted

and talented pupils to develop their talents. It does not expand to change aspects of the Greek Education system, such as the competitive exam-designed and exam-oriented culture of the school. Moreover, it does not provide any means or equipment for schools. Additionally, there seems to be no change concerning the legal conditions under which the teachers work (Law 3966/2011). The reform of the clubs is expected to be implemented within the existing context of schools in Greece. Bearing these factors in mind, it is uncertain whether the clubs for gifted and talented children can in fact „lift the rock‟, in other words achieve sustainability as a reform (Fullan, 2007; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016).

Research Methodology The Research Questions This particular research study focuses on the sustainability of an innovation. The clubs for gifted and talented children represent an effort to improve the education system. Initially, this seems to be a reform of limited extent in that it could be seen as simply aiming to fill in some „gaps‟ in teaching. However, it may represent an initiative with more fundamental significance, as the principle of the clubs, the advancement of gifted and talented learners, is something new to the education system of Greece. Teachers have a significant role in the case of education reforms (Fullan, 2007; Conway & Andrews, 2016). This is the case in the clubs as well. Teachers need to organize the concept and content of the clubs, which means naming the subject of the Club, arranging a syllabus, selecting the appropriate approach, inviting learners, identifying the ones appropriate, implementing and evaluating the effectiveness (Cropley, 1993; Subotnik et al, 1996; Law 3966/2011; Rin, 2012). The effectiveness and sustainability of such a reform demands that educators, along with members of the wider community, understand, accept, share and support its mission. It also demands that the structures of the school and the wider education system, its functions and infrastructure, present no obstacles or restrictions either to its initiation or to overcoming any challenges that may emerge during implementation. Finally, it is important that there are opportunities for accurate evaluation of the new institution. This evaluation will assist in locating the strengths of the reform implementation as well as the weaknesses and ways of addressing these (Fullan, 2007; Earl & Timperley, 2015; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015). Bearing in mind the above, in benchmark with the conditions for sustainable reform as described by Hargraves and Fink (2000), the questions that the research has to answer in order to assess the sustainability of the reform are as follows: 1) Is there acceptance of the need for the clubs by members of the educational community? (depth) 2) Are the school structures assisting in the implementation of the reform? (width)

3) Is the existing evaluation procedure adequate to support educators in their efforts to improve the clubsâ&#x20AC;&#x; in future? (length)

Research Methods There are a wide variety of approaches to educational research. The selection of the appropriate research approach depends on the context of the research and the research questions to be answered. The initial stage of the selection is the choice between quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The former approach uses scientific and experimental methods to predict human behaviours and attitudes, along with quantitative measurements to examine the validity of hypotheses (Kerlinger, 1970). On the other hand, qualitative research aims to investigate human attitudes and behaviours within a social context (Patton, 1990). Strauss and Corbin, (1997) define qualitative research as any kind of research activity that leads to conclusions not drawn from statistical processes or other means of quantification. Those involved in qualitative research aim to illuminate, understand and investigate specific contexts. In contrast those involved in quantitative research aim to generalize in order to be able to make predictions. This particular study, because of its nature and its research questions, fits more within the qualitative research paradigm; it focuses on analyzing human attitudes in a particular educational and social context. Because there are no specified parameters for defining the effectiveness of a specific educational intervention for gifted and talented learners (Rinn, 2012), the use of quantitative data analysis for the research would have been difficult. This research involves cooperation, dialogue, and revision as elements of the empirical work (Cohen et al., 2011). Data can be collected through interviews, questionnaires, biographies, notes, and documents of any kind, or by observation (Bell, 2001). For this particular research, the most appropriate data collection methods were semi-structured group interviews with educators and parents and observation. The use of interview and observation, as data collection methods, gives opportunity to compare data and reinforce the accuracy of the findings. In other words, data from interviews were benchmarked to those of the observation. Benchmarking with documents, such as the Law of the function of Clubs also took place. This approach, known as triangulation, is often suggested and used in qualitative research studies in order to enhance credibility (Cohen et al, 2011). All teachers who have undertaken the responsibilities of Clubs were interviewed in groups, at the end of each trimester. Therefore a total of 33 group interviews have taken place, among which 21 were interviews of teachers and 12 of parents. Observations were carried out throughout the year. 21 observations of Club sessions or preparation of sessions have taken place.

The interview questions were split into three groups depending on the wider research questions with which they were associated (Cohen et al., 2011). More specifically, there were questions about the impressions and expectations of the clubs, at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. These questions were linked to the first research question. A group of questions was concerned with ideas and opinions about the ways the school could assist in or benefit from the establishment of the clubs. These questions addressed the second research question. Finally, there was a group of questions that concerned the general approach to evaluation and feedback in the clubs. These addressed the third research question. Data Analysis In qualitative research data analysis involves organizing, explaining and interpreting the data. Using codes is suggested to assist strongly. Codes are labels attributed to responses, information or data, usually named after the topics or themes that the research questions negotiate, which assist in grouping and managing the data in order to analyse and draw conclusions. The codes are grouped into nodes or categories (Cohen et al, 2011). Following the model of Hargreaves and Fink (2000), the codes referring to the first research question where grouped under the node „depth‟. Those codes where named „acceptance‟, „necessity‟ and „agreement‟. Those codes referring to the second research question, where grouped under the node „width‟. Those codes were „infrastructure‟, „equipment‟, „school culture‟ and „school functions‟. Finally, the codes referring to the third research question were grouped under the node „length‟. Those codes were „assessment practices‟, „formal assessment‟ and „adequacy‟. All interviews and observation records were transcribed and then analyzed. The responses were coded. As soon as the coding is completed, tabulation of the responses will take place, core categories of them are identified, in order to draw the conclusions, by relating them to the relevant literature (Cohen et al, 2011). Through this approach, it was intended to explore the possibility that the institution of the clubs is an example of systemic and sustainable reform and innovation, something that could significantly improve the school context and culture (Fullan, 2007; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016).

Findings 1st Research Question: “Is There Acceptance of the Need for the Clubs by the Members of the Education Community?” In relation to the first research question, the acceptance of an institution such as the clubs in the school was apparent. Teachers were positive about promoting the implementation of the clubs. All teachers who took the responsibility for planning and organizing a club explain that others were willing to support the

clubs by assisting in teaching activities or by encouraging learners to participate in them.

120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Clubs should be implemented necessity

Other teachers assist in that agreement

parents are helping assistance

local organizations assist- assistance

Figure 1: Coded Teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responses in interviews for research question 1 (Node "Depth")

Many parents expressed interest in having their children take part in the clubs as soon as they were informed about this innovation. As they explained, they found the clubs interesting for three reasons. Firstly, all of them considered them part of an important effort to enrich the program of the school with innovative actions that corresponded to the interests and talents of various children. Secondly, many of their responses (78%) express the thought that through the clubs the school could gain stronger ties with the local community because there were opportunities for the school to develop its cooperation with the local authorities, enterprises or organizations involved in environmental or cultural topics. Thirdly, in the responses of many parents (67%), there is the consideration that the clubs provide opportunities to promote learning tasks that involved group work aiming not only at promoting cognitive goals but also at the development of other skills and attitudes.

120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Clubs should be Bring new opportunities Provide grounds for new implemented - necessity for school - agreement teaching activities agreement

Figure 2: Coded Parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responses in interviews for research question 1 (Node "Depth")

Local organizations supported the establishment of the clubs as well. As many teachers (77%) explained, and as seen from the observations, they agreed to cooperate with the school in many ways. They provided the school with teaching materials, they sent their members to the school to teach the children about their work, or they accepted educational visits from the children. These findings reveal that members of the school and wider community appreciated the necessity of an institution such as the clubs at school. At the same time, it was widely recognized that educating talented or gifted learners requires the cooperation of different groups of people as well as the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes. In short, there was agreement about the need for clubs and the way they should be implemented. These are basic conditions for the institution to be systemic and sustainable (Fullan, 2007; Kelly, 2004; Rinn, 2012; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015; Conway & Andrews, 2016).

2nd Research Question: “Are the School Structures Assisting in the Implementation of the Reform?” In relation to the second research question, the findings show that while it is possible for school structures to support innovations such as the clubs, some challenges were also apparent. Teachers in the interviews (89%) explained that the law suggests (Law 3966/2011), the clubs were planned to respond to the particularities and the special characteristics of the school, the pupils and the local community. This helped greatly in the organization and implementation of the clubs, especially in terms of teaching. Their responses (77%) also show that thanks to this approach, there was no problem gaining access to any means or materials or the rooms required, since planning was based on the materials and accommodation facilities that were already available at school, as well as the general program and operation of the school. Only few teachers expressed challenge facing due to poor school equipment (73%). this shows that there is a level of compatibility between the school structures and the clubs‟ establishment. There were, however, also challenges that emerged, mainly of a bureaucratic nature (64%). More specifically, the process of justifying the pedagogic benefits of teaching interventions that included school visits or visits of members of local organizations to the school. Similar responses addressed specifically to legal challenges in using ex-curricular strategies and materials in teaching (55%). For example, using ICT, video-conferencing software or showing a film movie was thought to need to be accompanied by a formal written justification of the need for such an activity, including a reassurance that there would be no unwelcome side effects for the learners.

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Carefull design The school had The school was necessary - the appropriate lacked all the school means for the necessary functions clubs designed - equipment infrastructure equipment

Legal Beaurocratical impediments - impediments school school functions functions

Figure 3: Coded Teachers’ responses in interviews for research question 2 (Node "Width")

As can be concluded from the above, the functioning of the clubs, within the specific school context and culture, does not seem to meet any barriers. However, with regard to pedagogic and teaching functions, such as the use of ICT that could enhance the work of the clubs, the present legal context is not sufficiently flexible. This limits the possibilities and options for the teacher in sustaining the straightforward operation of an institution such as the clubs (Kazamias et al; 2002; Foskett & Lumby, 2003; Kelly, 2004; Fullan, 2007; NAGC, 2008; Rin, 2012; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016).

3rd Research Question: “Is the Existing Evaluation Procedure Adequate to Support Educators in their Efforts to Improve the Clubs’ Function in Future?” As far as the third research question is concerned, on the efficacy of the evaluation processes and structures to contribute to the sustainability and effectiveness of the institution, the evaluation reports required by law can give a picture of the function of the clubs, according to many teachers‟ responses (82%). Indeed, evaluating parameters, such as learner attendance rates, the content of the learning tasks, teaching approaches, and achievement of the goals set, provide adequate information about the implementation. However, there are important aspects of the implementation that are expressed (62%) to be omitted in this kind of evaluation. More specifically, the weakness of this kind of evaluation lies in the fact that it is based only on opinion and judgment from the perspective of the educator and pays no attention to other aspects that can constitute the effectiveness of the clubs, such as the opinions of other people involved, including parents and pupils. As teachers (58%) responded this retrains the accuracy of the evaluation, which ends being less broad. The current evaluation context does not assist in the triangulation of

information, which would give a clearer picture of the progress of the clubs (Fullan, 2007; Cohen et al., 2011). Teachers added that the law certainly provides the school with the necessary flexibility to help in taking the initiative to organize school-based evaluation techniques. Examples of this are the meetings with parents and discussion through research groups that give information and ideas on improvement and feedback, which would help educators to organize tasks more effectively and to revise the goals of the clubs. This solution, however, meets two challenges. The first is linked to the fact that the particular field of study, the education of gifted and talented children, has no specific parameters for giving generally accepted measurements to evaluate teaching interventions (NAGC, 2008; Subotnik et al, 2011; Rin, 2012). The second is linked to the fact that the arrangement of such meetings is not supported directly by law. Even though the law does not prohibit these meetings, there is concern (72%) that holding such meetings might give the opportunity for reaction and complaint. In short, the evaluation of the progress of the clubs is forced to adapt to the existing context which addresses to evaluations of schools and education institutions, no matter if they undergo reform. The lack of elements to justify the validity and accuracy of the existing methods, in combination with their limited flexibility to promote new institutions, limits the expectation of their effective implementation, which would help them to be systemic and sustainable as reforms (Fullan, 2007; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016). 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Evaluation reports Evaluation is not Opinions of other Teachers are required assist - sufficient as it is not members of the resistent to take formal assessment broad - adequacy education initiatives for community is evaluation ommited assessment adequacy practices - adequacy Figure 4: Coded Teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responses in interviews for research question 3 (Node "Length")

Conclusions This project concerned the possibility of an institution implemented in a primary school in Greece becoming a systemic and sustainable reform. This institution of clubs is innovative in that it represents for the first time in Greek schools an organized attempt to educate gifted and talented children. The project has examined the legal context, the literature around the education of gifted and talented learners as well as the literature around educational reform and innovation and has allowed specific conclusions to be drawn (Subotnik et al, 2011; Rinn, 2012). The new institution was welcomed by the members of the school and the wider community. The existing structures support the new institution to an extent. Evaluation of the implementation progress cannot be restricted to the present evaluation processes, but calls for new ones, which depend on the initiative of the educator and the school (Conway & Andrews, 2016). Following the model of three dimensions of Hargreaves and Fink (2000), it is concluded that the extent of the reform is satisfactorily „deep‟, but that there is room for improvement in its width and length. Overall the findings show that there is a possibility for the clubs to be a systemic and sustainable innovation and achieve the desired lift of the Sisyphus rock (Kazamias et al, 2002). However, there are some challenges that must still be dealt with. The school context and culture, in which the Clubs are implemented, is not compatible with the requirements of the Clubs (Fullan, 2007; Holmen & Lyngsnes, 2015; Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016). At this final stage, it is important to point out the limitations to the generalization of these findings. The study examined data collected during a particular period in a specific school in Greece, which could serve as a stimulus for more research studies of a wider extent (Cohen et al., 2011).

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Everard, K.B., Morris, G. & Wilson, I., 2004. Effective School Management. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Foskett, N., & Lumby, J., (2003). Leading and Managing Education. London: SAGE, Paul Chapman Publishing. Fullan, M.F., (2007). The New Meaning of Educational Change. 4th Ed. London: Routledge Falmer. Gilad-Hai, S & Somech A. , (2016),“The day after” The Organizational Consequences of Innovation Implementation in Experimental Schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(1), 19-40. Hargreaves, A. & Fink, D. (2000) The Three Dimensions of Education Reform, Educational Leadership, 57 (7), 30-34. Holmen, H. & Lyngsnes, K., (2015). Continuous Collective Development as a Road to Success in Primary School. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research. 14(2), 87-98. Kazamias, A., Zambeta, E., & Karadjia, E. (2002), Greece: Educational Reform 2000 – Toward a Paideia of open orisons – The modern Greek Sisyphus. In: Linblad, S. & Popkewitz, T. S. (Eds.), Education Governance andSocial Integration and Exclusion: Studies in the Powers of Reason and the Reasons of Power (pp 165-203) Uppsala Reports on Education 39, Uppsala University. Kelly, A. (2004). The Intellectual Capital of Schools. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Kerlinger, F. M. (1970). Foundations of Behavioural Research. New York: Hol, Rinehart and Winston. National Association for Gifted Children. (2008). What is giftedness? http://www.nagc.org/WhatisGiftedness.aspx (Accessed 10 February 2015). O‟ Day, J. and Smith, M.S., (1991). Systemic School Reform. In: S.H. Fuhrman and B. Malen, (Eds), The Politics of Curriculum and Teaching, 1990 Yearbook of the Politics of Educational Association, (pp. 233-267). LondonFalmer Press. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. 2nd Ed Newburry Park, CA: SAGE Publication Inc. Rin, A., (2012). Implications for Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of Gifted Individuals: A Response to Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, & Worrell (2011). Gifted Child Quarterly, 56 (4), 206-209. Roelofs, E., & Terwel. J., (1999). Constructivism and Authentic Pedagogy; State of the Art and Recent Development in the Dutch National Curriculum in Secondary Education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(2), 201-227. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J., (1997). Grounded Theory rRsearch: Procedures, Canons and Evaluative Criteria. Qualitative Sociology, 13, 3-21. Subotnik R. F., Misserandino A.D. & Olszewski-Kubilius, P., (1996). Implications of the Olympiad Studies for the Development of Mathematical Talent in Schools. International Journal of Educational Research, 25(6), 563-573. Subotnik, R. F., Olszewski-Kubilius, P., & Worrell, F. C. (2011). Rethinking Giftedness & Gifted Education: A Proposed Direction Forward based on Psychological Science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 12(1), 3-54. Taba, H. (1962). Curriculum Development. New York: Harcourt. Ziegler, A., Stoeger H. & Vialle W. (2012). Giftedness and Gifted Education: The Need for a Paradigm Change. Gifted Child Quarterly, 56 (4), pp. 194-197.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No.6, pp. 78-92, May 2016

Legal Aspects in the Collaborative Production of Open Digital Resources Everton Knihs Mackenzie Presbyterian University and Anhembi Morumbi University São Paulo, SP, Brazil Nizam Omar Mackenzie Presbyterian University São Paulo, SP, Brazil Ismar Frango Silveira Mackenzie Presbyterian University São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Abstract. The production of intellectual content using computer systems is a topic of general interest that has no precise or agreed definitions on issues of open resources, open licensing, open educational resources, open books, and collaborative authorship. When the creation of collaborative works is investigated, the discussion evolves to questions about the concept of authorship itself and the absence of a clear regulatory framework to serve as a support for computer architecture. The study of open licenses and intellectual property intends to enable the creation, edition, reuse, modification, and dissemination of open collaborative works. Collaborative authorial production in computational resources refers to a comprehensive study of the concepts of authorship, original work and its versioning, free licenses, free software, and “openness”. This paper presents the legal dimension and its related aspects established in the legal concept of authorship and licenses as a guide for the creation, publication, and sharing of open digital resources. Keywords: Open digital resources; concept of authorship; openness; property and moral rights.

Introduction Technological innovations favor the creation of collaborative and open intellectual works. The communication and interaction between different authors involved in the creation of a work establish a conducive environment for the development of multicultural resources (Ladson-Billings, G., 2004). The creation of a modern work allows an author to become also the producer of the © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

created resource, which may be digital, cultural, or educational, reflecting a cultural adjustment regarding the creation of works (Amiel, T., Orey, M., & and West, R., 2010). To develop the arguments in this work, it is necessary to present here some guiding concepts regarding the creation of intellectual works. This includes an approach to the relevant scientific literature on the process of development of open resources. One of the concepts studied here is “Openness”, as its literal translation into Portuguese, "Opening", which means “to widen”, covering the characteristics of Open Resources, which include the possibility to reuse, redistribute, revise, remix, and retain a work, shaping the concept of the “5Rs” (Wiley, D., 2014). The combination of local features and extensive global interaction determines the human capacity to fill gaps and overcome obstacles, creating new social needs such as requirements for desirable resources, financial capital, human capital, organizational capital, and cultural capital (Wellman, B., 2002). These capitals are available in a network and include the individuals’ ability to provide information and knowledge, as well as material, financial, and emotional support (Anastasiou, D., & Schäler, R., 2010). Thereby, initiatives to create and produce open digital resources may be considered as alternatives to different strategies favoring social diffusion of the access to innovations and content. The creation and production of open digital resources, based on the principles of open educational resources (Wiley, D., 2014) available to all individuals, has inherent issues that must be considered, such as legal aspects, cultural differences, specific technological considerations, and strategies that support the premise of Openness of developed resources. An analysis of the scientific literature relevant to the process of development of open digital resources is helpful in the evaluation of the process of intellectual production, a common process that consists of a set of procedures including the creation, edition, and publication of a work (Paesani, L.M., 2012). Writers, for example, write, edit, and publish their books, and the final product of this process is a textbook in an indivisible form. This model of intellectual production is based on historical practices of authorial rights and writing tools. However, in the context of open digital resources, the distribution in this model finds barriers due to lack of specialized publishers in the concept of authorship in multinational, open, and collaborative creation of open textbooks (Silveira, I.F. et al., 2013). The creation and sharing of open digital resources undergo a specific adaptation process (Lemos, R., & Branco Júnior, S., 2009) in order to become suitable to the regional reality. In order for sharing to occur, the production of intellectual works encounters some barriers, such as lack of regulatory guides, forms of distribution, and high costs. The distribution (Otsuka et al., 2015) of intellectual property is associated with high costs (Rodes, V. et al., 2012), derived from legal aspects intrinsic to the work and involving the author’s economic and moral rights, such as authorship (Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S., 2009). The process of adaptation takes place during the localization of a created work. This is a necessary step when the objectives of such work include access by individuals inserted in different cultures or regions and by existing © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

technologies in these individuals’ regional context, characterizing the cultural and technological aspects of a work, respectively. Thus, the transformation of local or regional phenomena to global phenomena is known as globalization (Anastasiou, D., & Schäler, R., 2010), which determines the coexistence of integration and local identity (Wiegerling, K., 2004). Therefore, the creation and sharing of open digital resources focus on the process of adaptation of a work, taking into account and integrating multicultural and technological features. A problem in the creation of an intellectual work, discussed herein, relates to intellectual property rights (Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S., 2009) involving authorship when such work is characterized as an open resource (Wiley, D., 2014). Another challenge concerns the management of the work, such as monitoring of versioning and amount of shared resources (Silveira, I.F. et al., 2013). An environment that takes care of the distribution and monitors the development of content from the original work and the amount of shared resources is a solution to the lack of specialized publishers, as well as to challenges found in the legal aspects involved in multicultural collaborative authorships of open digital resources. To contextualize the issues listed in this paper, it is necessary to question which legal aspects involved in building and sharing open digital resources should be considered in the preparation of such initiatives. The legal dimension defines the limits of the strategies for adoption, creation, and distribution, providing a framework for sharing the collaborative work as an open digital resource in a multicultural, multinational, and global context (Amiel, T., Orey, M., & and West, R., 2010). The process of creation and use of open digital resources addresses cultural, legal, and technological aspects, and this work details the legal aspects of this process. Within this context, the issues of authorship and intellectual property are presented as a cross-sectional and procedural factor, i.e., if on one hand these issues are based on rights and licensing, on the other hand, their definition is essential in computer specifications and adoption strategies. The following section presents a study of the legal dimensions involving the creation and production of collaborative works, encompassing the concept of Openness, aspects of moral and economic rights regarding authorship, and the concept of authorship in the creation of open digital resources. These topics delineate the purpose of this work.

I. Legal Dimension of Openness The creation of a work requires new approaches when analyzed within the concept of Openness, according to Wiley, D. (2014) who describes issues related to the cost and licensing of the author’s copyrights. To this author, the term "open" means that a resource is available at no cost and attends five principles known as "5Rs": reuse, redistribute, revise, remix, and retain. These new forms of creation of works also emerge when it comes to the concession of licenses and content exchange. Also, new collaboration tools have been opening up opportunities for new ways to produce open resources, such as open books, including textbooks and collaborative strategies, specifically created with a didactic purpose to be used as textbooks for educational support (Henderson, S., & Nelson, D., 2011). © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

The collaborative aspect of the creation of a work involves intellectual production from several authors, a process facilitated by a possibility of these authors to communicate using computer systems and the development of such systems. This collaboration is the result of an authoring process carried out by several participants. Therefore, the final product generates a debate and requires the definition of specific criteria regarding the production of open digital resources developed collaboratively. The study on intellectual property emerges due to a formalization of the law intended to protect intellectual property derived from copyright, industrial property, and sui generis intellectual rights. The protection of these rights – positive rights – refers not only to the field of property law, but also to the rights attached to the work, including its creation, novelty, and originality, as well as the author's moral rights (WIPO, 1979). Intellectual property refers to the area of knowledge that involves patents, industrial designs, author's rights, trademarks, and others (Paesani, L.M., 2012). Similarly, the new forms of communication stimulate the development and legal adaptation, expanding the interpretation and edition of the legislation, intervening, for example, on the rights of the authors, programmers, and musicians. Intellectual property demands legal protection, which in a domestic context is established by national legislation and in an international context by international conventions. Intellectual property is divided into the study of authors’ rights, industrial property, and sui generis intellectual rights. Copyright encompasses moral and economic rights but also recognizes the economic use of the author's work by artists, performers, phonogram producers, or radio broadcasting companies (Brazil, 1998), known as related rights. Industrial property relates to the study of industrial creations, patents, trademarks, and industrial design rights. Sui generis intellectual rights constitute the legal study of computer software, integrated circuit topography, and cultivars. A computer software has a distinctive authorial treatment that includes, in addition to aspects of authors’ rights, other particularities since they are commercial products situated between authors’ rights and industrial property (Paesani, L.M., 2012). The study related to integrated circuit topology refers to miniature electronic circuits known as chips, which allow essential technical results such as operating and energetic efficiency or optimization of consumption and heating. These characteristics relate to the topography of the chips and introduce particularities to their legal treatment within the industrial property. Finally, cultivar (or cultivars) refers to genetic improvements of vegetal species obtained by genetic crossing over, a branch of the biotechnology industry, and recognized as intellectual goods, requiring distinctness, uniformity, and stability as necessary requirements for legal protection of the cultivar (Paesani, L.M., 2012). In this manner, intellectual property would be “genre”, whereas copyright, industrial property, and sui generis intellectual right would be “species”. On an international level, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is responsible for the administration of international treaties and related issues. Other international treaties and conventions related to intellectual property include the Paris Convention, Berne Convention, Rome Convention, © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Stockholm Conference, and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The latter, known as the TRIPS Agreement, established the legal basis for intellectual property rights related to commerce such as the promotion and dissemination of technological innovations, setting a direction to meet the interests of the producers and users in a balanced way. The Berne Convention, the main international treaty for recognition of authors’ rights, is an attempt to harmonize different conceptions about authors' rights in the laws of the signatory nations of this international treaty. The Paris Convention was established as an international treaty to recognize the rights of inventors of models, industrial designs, and trademarks configured in the field of intellectual property. The Rome Convention was established as a source of law for related rights. The international organization responsible for the administration of international treaties on this issue, WIPO, has been part of the United Nations since 1974. The international treaties and conventions, along with the internal laws of each of their signatory countries, provide protection of copyrights, delimiting that the authors have the exclusive rights to use, publish and reproduce their works, which are transmissible to their heirs, to ensure the protection of individual participation in collective works. The rights over intellectual property are exclusive rights, i.e., rights to exclude third parties other than the holder from the economic enjoyment of the property. These rights clarify that an intervention by the State is required to curb copying, restrict unfair competition, and protect innovations and new intellectual works (Paesani, L.M., 2012). This author also states that intellectual property arises from the law, therefore, is not a natural right, and reflects the cultural heritage of a people. The first aspect to be considered in intellectual property is the legal context in the authorial production initiative. The copyright system based on the legal tradition of Roman law, unlike Anglo-Saxon systems, considers the work as emanating from the author's personality, establishing a distinction between economic rights, also known as property rights, and moral rights (García, J.J.G., 2013). In Anglo-Saxon systems, moral rights remain outside the laws known as "copyright laws." Mainly because the moral rights in Anglo-Saxon systems deal with the economic rights of a work, they include trading of consumer goods with very similar characteristics as those of properties applicable to physical goods. In the Anglo-American legal system, which is derived from the AngloSaxon system (Lemos, R., & Branco Júnior, S., 2009), the rights are considered "copyrights" in which the work is the object in property rights, based on common law, in which the fundamental scope is to protect the work, i.e., the emphasis is on the economic part through reproductive rights. This scheme differs from that of Roman-Germanic origin, in which the author holds the property and the moral rights. Traditional Latin systems of protection of moral rights have mechanisms that often prevent initiatives of access to intangible assets. Based on the rights established as copyright emerges copyleft, which is considered a legal mechanism to guarantee that the creators of works are entitled, while still supported, to license the use of such works beyond the limits of the law. Lemos and Branco Junior (2009) report that through licenses inspired by copyleft, the licensee would be granted guarantee, in a generic way, to resort © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

to third-party works under the terms of a granted public license. Copyright, according to the creators of copyleft, restricts the rights to copy and distribute a given work. Thus, a copyleft license uses copyright laws to ensure that everyone who receives a version of the work is allowed to use, modify, and distribute the work along with its derived versions. Based on that, copyleft can be said to be the opposite of copyright (Lemos, R., & Branco Júnior, S., 2009). Copyleft licenses certify the rights under copyright, but require all licensees to make reference to the author of the work and to use the same licensing model when redistributing the original work, copies of the work, or derived versions of the work (Moniz, P.P, & Cerdeira, P.C., 2004). In Brazil, for example, copyleft contracts have the concept of the moral rights of the creator of the work, aiming to establish concepts of freedom and restriction within the copyright system, as already occurring in the Brazilian legal system. As a conclusion, Brazil is already inserted in this concept since the country has legal provisions related to the author's moral rights. The study of authorship and licenses in open cultural and educational resources lacks formalization regarding the criteria for authorship and derivative works. In order to study the set of rights involved in this issue and allow solutions or development of new technologies, one must analyze the problem from a multidisciplinary perspective. Authorial rights are aspects of the legal context that involve a work, and in the case of authors located in different countries, an open resource must be constructed based on different legal systems, since these contexts delimit the authorial production. The legal training in a given country, or in different countries, is influenced by the cultural context in which the people of the country are inserted. Influences from international treaties can originate laws or different interpretations of the law, which can be internal or external such as laws created within a territory or adopted by international treaties and conventions, respectively. These differences can lead to legal or cultural differences due to each State’s sovereignty, resulting in an individual legal training at each country. Configured as personality rights and human rights in Latin legal systems, authors’ rights have a more complex legal protection since only the author of the work can exercise them. In legal systems of common law, moral rights inserted in author’s rights laws are not taken into consideration, and only economic rights are highlighted, characterizing moral rights as physical assets and transforming them into marketable consumption goods. The legal dimension of cultural and educational open resources in terms of intellectual property directs the understanding of blockage or restriction of the economic rights included in the copyright, through the adoption of flexible licenses that incorporate the “5Rs” principle (Wiley, D., 2014). These licenses help the way in which a work is incorporated into the legal system and how the users of such work are able to use it. In addition to the adoption of a license in the creation of open cultural and educational resources, it becomes necessary to observe eventual boundaries and differences in legal interpretations. This observation leads to a broader interpretation, with the adoption of international treaties and conventions by each country, as well as a consensus on as well as a consensus on the application of these treaties and conventions to the case. This © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

consensus may take place in the form of an authorship contract or agreement in the case of collaborative or derivative works, depending on the domestic laws of each country or based on international standards, thus configuring an orientation in the legal dimension for the creation of open resources. The following section addresses the legal concepts related to moral and property rights involved in the concept of authorship and elaborates on a study and discussion centered on the author centered on the author, including definitions, forms, and copyrights associated with the author, applying these processes to computer systems and cultural and educational open resources.

II. Moral rights and property rights involved in the concept of authorship The moral rights of an author are considered personality rights; therefore, they are inalienable and non-transferable. Based on that, the creation of a work emanates from the author's personality, granting the author moral rights, which are the components that unite the author to his work, producing effects throughout his existence, even after his death. Under Brazilian laws, for example, when an author dies, the author's rights are passed to his successors (Brazil, 1998), including paternity claims, the inclusion of the author's name in the work, and the right to prohibit the publication and alteration of the work. Thus, even if the economic rights in a work are transferred, the moral rights of the author are unavailable. The moral rights of the author can be presented in a list (Brazil, 1998), part of which is presented below: ● Claim, at any time, the authorship of the work; ● Have his name, pseudonym, or conventional sign indicated or announced as the author in the use of his work; ● Maintain the work unpublished; ● Ensure the integrity of the work, opposing to any changes or acts that may harm in any way the work or affect him, the author, in his reputation or honor; ● Modify the work, before or after its use; ● Withdraw the work from circulation or suspend any form of use already authorized when the circulation or use dishonor his reputation and image; ● Have access to a unique and rare copy of the work when it is legitimately in the hands of others, in order to preserve memory of this work with a photographic (or similar) or audiovisual process, causing the least possible inconvenience to the holder, who will be, in any case, indemnified for any caused damage or injury. Thus, the author's moral rights, which refer to legally protected interests, are incorporeal, immaterial and ntellectual, preserving the integrity of the work. The moral rights of the author are personal rights and have the purpose of protecting the creator of the work. These rights reflect the author's personality and, thus, are protected by the intrinsic characteristics of personality rights, such as being imprescriptible, not attachable, irrevocable, and inalienable. Moral rights relate to a work’s development, dissemination, and titling. This opposes to

property rights, which involve the economic exploitation of protected works (Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S., 2009). In addition to the moral concept, the creation of a work also involves the economic concept, here named economic rights, one that authorizes its holder to exploit the work economically. Any goods economically significant in a trade or liable to be alienated or appropriated are considered property rights (Paesani, L.M., 2012). The patrimonial rights of the author arise when he discloses the work by communicating it to the public. By law, these rights are considered as movable, assignable, transferable, and temporary goods. These goods are transferable after death or during life. The following section addresses the legal concepts that permeate cultural and educational open resources, such as the concept of author, collaborative authorship, moral and property rights, authorship processes, versioning, and open licenses. These concepts involve both legal characteristics and influences regarding new ways to frame technological advances.

III. Concepts of authorship The Brazilian Copyright Law (Brazil, 1998) states that an "author is an individual who creates a literary, artistic, or scientific" work. It also states that "to identify the author, the creator of a literary, artistic, or scientific work may use his civil name in full or abbreviated with his initials, pseudonym, or any other conventional sign." This law also considers the author of an intellectual work, when no evidence to the contrary exists, that who by one of the identification methods mentioned above according to the use, indicated and announced this quality in such use and "the protection granted to the author can be applied to legal persons, with companies, as provided in this Act". Based on that, a distinction can be established between author and holder, in which only an individual can be an author, but he may transfer the ownership of his rights to any third party, person or entity. In this case, even though the individual is always the author of the work, the legal holder to exercise the rights over the work can be a legal entity or an individual other than the author (Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S., 2009). The propagation of the work refers to the author’s power to maintain the work unpublished at his will. The recognition of an author’s rights over his text, for example, is justified by the intrinsic link that exists between him and his work (Longo, M., & Magnolo, S., 2009). More than a legal right, the authorship is above all a moral right, an intangible good, as well as an economic right to exploitation by those who produced the work. This splits the concept of the authorship of a work into a moral part and an economic part. Personality rights in the field of intellectual law (Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S., 2009) consider the study of the moral rights of the author and state that they are closely linked to the author's relationship with and development, propagation, and titling of his work. Copyrights are characterized as inalienable and imprescriptible and because they are human rights, they are considered in a way that only the author can exercise them. Concerning moral rights, there is no consensus in the understanding of the laws in different countries, that is, the paternity right of authorship and the work claim. Therefore, the integrity rights of the author are respected, and he © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

may object to any distortion, mutilation, or other modification of his work that could harm his honor or reputation. Another understanding is the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right to withdraw, in which case he may suspend any form of use of his work and be compensated for losses and damages, if appropriate. The creation of a work requires attention to its authorial context, and based on this discussion about copyright, new forms of authorship emerge, as presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Concept of Authorship

The principles of the different forms of authorship are established on the concept of authorship, along with the legal dimension established according to the new forms of creation of a work. Based on that, the new forms of authorship presented in Figure 1 are discussed below. Coauthorship: Coauthorship exists when two or more persons are authors of the same work (ParanaguĂĄ, P., & Branco, S., 2009). However, the Brazilian Copyright Law (Brazil, 1998) states that coauthorship of a work is attributed to those whose name, pseudonym, or conventional sign is used in the work. It is not considered a coauthor one who simply assisted the author in producing the literary, artistic, or scientific work, revising it, updating it, as well as supervising or directing its publication or presentation by any medium. The law also establishes that to the coauthor, whose contribution can be used separately, are guaranteed all faculties inherent to the creation of an individual work; however, it prohibits use that may be harmful to the exploitation of the common work. It is noteworthy that regarding collective works, the ownership of the property rights is attributed to the organizer. Also, protection is provided to the individual participations of the author in a divisible or indivisible work. Collaborative Authorship: Collaborators are individuals who work together during a project or a considerable part of it (Katz, S. J., & Martin, B.R., 1997). In scientific production, coauthorship or collaboration occurs when two or more scientists, working together on a research project, share intellectual, economic, or physical resources. However, the type of contribution from each coauthor to the production of the work may be different (Vanz, S.A.S, 2009). A collaboration encompasses different actions, such as expressing an opinion, sharing ideas and data, working together during the course of a project or separately in different parts of a project aiming final integration. Thus, a coauthorship work is an ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

interactive work that changes through collaboration and with characteristics attributed to a joint work. Authorship Process: Some innovative processes in the concept of authorship are presented below, with suggestions for issues involving the solution to conflicting laws in the collaborative production of open resources. The solutions map out some choices for the formalization of an authorship, adoption of criteria pre-established by the authors in creating a collaborative work which may be an original or a versioned/derived work. This way, the original works and derivative works must be observed in order to fit in an Authorship Contract or Agreement. All agreements among the coauthors of a work or even agreements in works with a single author must adopt specific licenses that incorporate the principles of Openness. For the exercise of the rights, these Authorship Contracts or Agreements require a record of what the work will provide to the collaborating authors, presented as a set of criteria such as guidelines or suggestions. According to the purpose or planning, it is possible to have a work project, contract, or agreement whose assignment refers to the classification agreed between the authors, providing a solution to be included in different multinational laws. Versioning or Derived Creations: A work can be classified in two ways, as an original work or a derivative work. Both have inherent copyrights according to their origin. An original work is defined as the first creation (Brazil, 1998), i.e., the first or the original, whereas derivative or versioned works are those that constitute a new intellectual creation resulting from a transformation of the original work. Original works are the innovative works, that is, underived works. Derivative works are altered works that evolve from or complement an original work; a derivative work incorporates the original work and transforms it into a new work. License: A license is a contract that expresses an authorization for use, or use and enjoyment of intellectual property rights, which can be issued at a cost or for free, or be exclusive or limited. If issued at a cost, it acquires the caracteristic of a lease, and if for free, the characteristics of lending. The financial compensation is known as royalty, which is calculated as a percentage of any economic gain obtained with the intellectual property (Pimental, L.O., 2010). The license is the instrument that regulates how the movement of the copyrights will occur. This way, some author's rights may be transferred to third parties, which is a form of continuity and movement established previously according to the desire and prior authorization from the author of the original work, which will occur with the choice of a specific license. The license is an authorization given by the author to a third party who may use the work, exclusively or not, under the terms of the granted authorization, similarly to a lease, if issued at a cost, or lending, if issued for free (ParanaguĂĄ, P., & Branco, S., 2009). Open Licenses: Open licenses emerge as a legal ground expressed by the creators themselves, holders of the authorial rights of a work. These productions allow social movement around the work, formalizing its legal protection and authorizing previously and expressly the conditions of use of such work. These licenses are alternatives to preserving the authorial rights according to the criteria for use and derivation chosen by the author of the original work, based on the adoption of the license that will govern the work. As a result of copyleft, ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Creative Commons (CC) licenses have been introduced, which are general public licenses specific to each authoring work (Amiel & Soares, 2016), designed to facilitate the free redistribution of phonographic, scientific, and literary works according to the owner’s will (Paesani, L.M., 2012). Other legal contracts with open characteristics are GNU-GPL and GNU-LGPL. In English, GNU is an acronym for General Public License, which is characterized by respect for the freedom of the users, who are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve a software. This license, often known by its abbreviation, GNU-GPL, aims at establishing licensing network contracts. The person who enjoys this license (Paesani, L.M., 2012) must allow the use of his eventual improvements and modifications to the work. The terms of the license related to copyright are interpreted as an authorization for reuse, adaptation and redefinition of the work, as long as the derivative work maintains the same license. The fundamental difference between "renouncement" and "authorization" is the author’s possibility to withdraw the license. This occurs because the terms of the chosen license include aspects related to moral rights, and in the associated legal system, such rights are inalienable. Open licenses allow the use of "separability" clauses, i.e., in the case of incompatibility of some of their terms with the laws of any country, any provision deemed unenforceable in other existing provisions can be eliminated. The revocation of a license is not retroactive, in order to prevent the revocation from affecting those works or copies of the work that are already circulating and existing in a derivative form. Figure 2, below, shows a conceptual flow of the author’s rights in the creation of open digital resources, which may be cultural or educational, contained in the legal dimension of Openness.

Figure 2. Conceptual flow diagram of the legal aspects involved in the collaborative creation of Open Digital Resources

The conceptual flow of collaborative development of open digital resources (Figure 2) parts from the broader concept of intellectual property, passes through copyright, forms of authorship, agreements and open licenses, thereby generating the open digital resources following all these previous definitions. An analysis of Figure 2 allows the understanding of the understanding of the steps in collaborative authoring of open digital resources, according to its legal aspects, summarized below: ● Intellectual Property: A comprehensive specialty of the law that formalizes the protection of intellectual property derived from copyright, industrial property, and sui generis intellectual rights. It establishes legal protection from other countries with national legislations on a domestic level and with international conventions on an external level. © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

●

Sui Generis Rights: Legal study and provisions pertaining to computer software, integrated circuit topography, and cultivars. ● Industrial Property: Study and provisions of laws related to the rights of industrial designs, patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. ● Authors’ Rights: Provisions of authors’ rights that involve moral rights and inherent economic rights to the creation of an Open Digital Resource. Moral rights are part of the author's personality and are inalienable and non-transferable. Economic rights are those that authorize the holder to exploit economically the Open Digital Resource. ● Author: The creator and owner of the copyright to an Open Digital Resource. ● Coauthors: Two or more creators and copyright holders of the same Open Digital Resource. ● Authorship Agreements: Contract or authorship agreements on an Open Digital Resource, whose assignment refers to the classification agreed between the coauthors, providing a solution to their inclusion in different multinational laws. ● Open Licenses: Legal protection and prior express authorization regarding the conditions of use of an Open Digital Resource that authorizes reuse, redistribution, revision, remix, and retention of such Open Digital Resource. It allows clauses of "separability", which in the case of incompatibility of some of their terms with the laws of a given country can eliminate any provision considered inapplicable to the existing ones. ● Open Digital Resources: Works created by an author or coauthors who are copyright holders with an authorship agreement and who adopt an open license, determining the possibility of reuse, redistribution, revision, remix, and retention of such work. Open digital resources, when developed as an objective of multicultural access, can be considered an alternative to the traditional publishing of digital materials. Since these resources have different forms of creation and legal characteristics, intellectual property rights reframe and reorganize their social, educational, and accessibility outreach (Ladson-Billings, G., 2004). In authorship, observation of multinational and multicultural characteristics, such as the place of creation of the work and particularities determined by this location (Anastasiou, D., & Schäler, R., 2010) with adaptation of these particularities when conflicts or disagreements arise, enable implementation of initiatives to allow the creation of reusable open resources in extraterritorial contexts. In addition to the cultural aspect, the development of open digital resources is directly linked to copyright and economic issues (Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S., 2009), conceptually oriented toward forms of creation and innovation. The characteristics of this product as an open resource can suppress the economic aspect of diffusion, but the moral copyright aspect of the creators of a work remains established (García, J.J.G., 2013), now without the intrinsic economic aspect. Open digital resources, either cultural or educational, are published and distributed by electronic means with the intent of facilitating the access to knowledge. For a collaborative production of these resources, the authors must © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

adopt a license upon the creation of an original work, determining the way in which the original work and the derivative works will be released and treated when the work is shared (Lemos, R., & Branco Júnior, S., 2009). These open digital resources must follow a license, which should be based not on copyright rules – which prohibit copies of any part of a work, favoring the patrimonial aspect – but on open licenses, such as CC, which allow reuse and adaptation of a work in whole or in part (Lemos, R., & Branco Júnior, S., 2009). A resource based on an open license can be reused and modified, and new authors are not required to have an authorization to change derivative works, only to assign to the derivative works the same license of the original work (CC).

Conclusion Collaboration is an important characteristic in the development and derivation of a work as part of the process of creation and use of open digital resources. Collaboration offers a range of new possibilities for the creation and reuse of materials and contents, resulting in a series of discussions over the creation of original or derivative works, ranging from legal issues to those related to implementation, adoption, and propagation strategies. Authors’ rights are considered fundamental rights. Due to the constant development of technological resources, the protection of the authors’ rights undergoes some relativization pertaining to the unfolding of the legal and technological aspects involved in the process. The construction of mechanisms protecting the authors’ rights is constantly evolving. Although the legislation on this subject differs in different parts of the world, they have been adapted to the technological advances, redefining the legal multinational and multicultural characteristics of the creation of open digital resources. Open digital resources should be both instrument and support for the development of knowledge, and are characterized as a type of innovation for the production of intellectual contents across computational resources. The study of specific licenses for the contemplation of the open aspect and the creation of collaborative authoring works through computational resources lack clear definitions in computer architecture; therefore, new approaches to licensing and exchange of content, as well as new collaborative tools open up opportunities for new forms of production of open digital resources. The creation of these resources involves the intellectual production of one or several authors in which the creation of a work by different authors is considered a collaborative authorship. The final product generates debate and requires the definition of specific criteria for the various forms of authorship and production developed collaboratively and involved in the context of a multinational work. Thus, careful strategic planning should be considered in the creation of open digital resources, taking into account the established legal dimension involving this process.

References Amiel, T., Orey, M., & and West, R. (2010). Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REA): Modelos para localização e adaptação. ETD – Educação Temática Digital, 12(mar.), 112–125. Amiel, T., Soares, T. C. (2016). Identifying Tensions in the Use of Open Licenses in OER Repositories. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

Learning - IRRODL. Vol 17, Number 3. Abril, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2426/3688. Anastasiou, D., & Schäler, R. (2010). Translating Vital Information: Localisation, Internationalisation, and Globalisation. Syn-thèses Journal. Brazil (1998). Brazilian copyright law n. 9.610/1998. Retrieved from http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/L9610.htm. Creative Commons. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. García, J.J.G. (2013). El derecho moral: Principal elemento distintivo entre el sistema latino y el anglosajón de derechos de autor. Revista de Derecho, (4), 21-64. Retrieved from http://www.lamjol.info/index.php/DERECHO/article/download/937/748. GNU. General Public Licence. Retrieved from http://www.gnu.org/. Katz, S. J., & Martin, B.R (1997). What is research collaboration? Research Policy. 26(1):118.Retrieved from http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/sylvank/pubs/Res_col9.pdf Ladson-Billings, G. (2004). New directions in multicultural education: Complexities, boundaries, and critical race theory. In: James A. Banks, C. A. M. B. (Ed.). Handbook of research on multicultural education. 2.nd. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. p.50-65. ISBN 0-7879-5915-4. Lemos, R., & Branco Júnior, S. (2009). Copyleft, software livre e Creative Commons: a nova feição dos Direitos Autorais e as Obras Colaborativas. Retrieved from: http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/dspace/handle/10438/2796. Longo, M., & Magnolo, S. (2009). The author and authorship in the internet society: new perspectives for scientific communication. Curr Sociol;57(6):829-50. Moniz, P.P, & Cerdeira, P.C. (2004). Copyleft e Software Livre: Uma Opção pela Razão – Eficiências Tecnológica, Econômica e Social – II. Revista da ABPI, n. 72. Otsuka, J. et al. (2015). Livre Saber (LiSa): Um Repositório de Recursos Educacionais Abertos de Cursos a Distância. Revista Brasileira de Informática na Educação, Volume 23, Número 1 (RBIE) - Journal of Computers in Educacion - Brazil. Retrieved from: http://www.brie.org/pub/index.php/rbie/article/view/2390/2843. Paesani, L.M. (2012). Manual da propriedade intelectual. v.1. São Paulo: Atlas. Paranaguá, P., & Branco, S. (2009). Direitos autorais. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV. Pimental, L.O. (2010). Manual básico de acordos e parceria de PD&I: aspectos jurídicos. Fórum Nacional de Gestores de Inovação e Transferência de Tecnologia. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS. 158 p. ISBN 978-85-7430-967-5. Rodes, V. et al. (2012). Percepciones, actitudes y prácticas respecto a los libros de texto, digitales y en formatos abiertos por parte de estudiantes de universidades de América Latina. Anais Workshop Recursos Educacionais Abertos. Cbie. Retrieved from http://www.brie.org/pub/index.php/wcbie/article/view/1893. Schäler, R. (2007). Localization. In: Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Baker, M. and Saldanha, G. (Eds.), second edition, 157-161. Henderson, S., & Nelson, D. (2011). “The Promise of Open Access Textbooks: A Model for Success”. Retrieved from http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/. Silveira, I.F. et al. (2013). A digital ecosystem for the collaborative production of open textbooks: The LATIn methodology. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 12, 225-249. Retrieved from http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol12/JITEv12ResearchP225246SilveiraFT89.pdf. Vanz, S.A.S (2009). As redes de colaboração científica no Brasil (2004-2006). Doctoral Thesis. Brazil, Porto Alegre: Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (UFRGS).

Wellman, B. (2002). Little Boxes, Glocalisation, and Networked Individualism, In: Digital Cities II, edited by Makoto Tanabe, Peter van den Besselaar, and Toru Ishida. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 11-25. Wiegerling, K. (2004). Localisation versus Globalisation – Claim and Reality of Mobile and Context-aware Applications of the Internet, In: International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE). Volume 2, 1-7. Wiley, D. (2014). The Access compromise and the 5th R, 5 March 2014. Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221. WIPO.(1979). Convenio de Berna para la Protección de las Obras Literarias y Artísticas. Retrieved from http://www.wipo.int/treaties/es/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html#P132_23079.

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 93-101, May 2016

Paparazzi and Self-Awareness: Reflective Practice Using Digital Technology Catherine Caldwell Illini Bluffs CUSD #327 Glasford, Illinois, USA Heljä Antola Crowe and Robert Davison Avilés Bradley University Peoria, IL, USA

Abstract. In the era of selfies, photo-bombs and Facebook, candid captures of interactions with others in the classroom have taken on new meanings. Seeing ourselves in moments when unaware of our professional demeanor, pictures can become a powerful tool for professional development. An evidence-based reflective Insight into Interactions workshop was developed based on observations made through university and elementary classroom activities with teacher education candidates and professionals from two disciplines, teacher education and school counseling. This professional development session created by an academic peer focused on analyzing both lived experiences and candid pictures through the eyes of professionals and students. These reflective debriefings resulted in more articulate self-awareness, perspective taking, and non-verbal communication skills. Keywords: Professional awareness; reflective

Development;

perspective-taking;

self-

Introduction Reflective practice is a powerful idea in education. The act of paying attention to oneself while engaged in professional practice is critical to good teaching and good counseling. Teaching teacher candidates and school counseling interns to self-supervise, is an essential part of what professors do in teacher education and school counseling programs. Through a series of serendipitous experiences and relationship building, a graduate student and two professors partnered in creating workshops, conference proposals, and a journal article in order to promote professional development through reflective practice and photography. In this article, the evidence-based reflective professional development workshop Insight into Interactions is highlighted. After viewing pictures, providing © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

constructive feedback, and professional experiences, teacher candidates learned about others’ perceptions of themselves as educators. Pictures at an exhibition is a mixed metaphor underlying how paparazzi capture people’s images when they are unaware. If a person becomes aware of the multiple images of self he/she presents this becomes an opportunity to stroll through pictures at an exhibition, with the intent to reflect, gain insight, articulate and improve professional practice.

Literature Review and Workshop Description The university course teacher candidates take is a methods course in English Language Learning. Teacher candidates learn theoretical ideas and strategies, which they have a chance to try out in the context of real elementary classrooms (kindergarten and second grade) with English Language Learners. This pedagogy is anchored in Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning cycle where a concrete learning experience is followed by reflective observation (reflecting on the experience) which leads to abstract conceptualization (learning from the experience) and active experimentation where learners are planning or trying out what was learned in the experience and reflecting on it. Experiences are crucial because many teacher candidates had never experienced linguistic diversity or realized that in their future they would be teaching children who are just learning to understand and converse in English. Respect for learners and their culture is a big part of this course. One of the most perceptive and respected tools for teacher development is Schön’s idea of reflective practice (1987). Reflection-in-action is when teachers think about what they are doing as they interact with their students or their colleagues. Reflection-on-action occurs after the educational event has passed and teachers think back to what they learned (notice the parallel with Kolb’s experiential learning). Rolfe (2014) suggested that: the primary task of reflective educators is therefore to form partnerships with their students in order to identify what they see as their learning needs and problems; to try out and appraise novel and individualised responses aimed at meeting those needs, and to arrive at a mutual agreement about what might constitute a resolution. Rather than regarding education as a technological intervention based on the technical–rational model, with learning outcomes, teaching methods and assessment schemes laid out in advance, learning becomes a joint enterprise which requires a personal and individual partnership between tutor and student (p. 1181). Thus, reflective practice activities were sprinkled throughout the semester and self-perception became more articulate as the semester progressed as evidenced by student feedback and classroom interactions. In preparation for school visits the teacher candidates had a nonverbal communication workshop in the university class to understand how important communication is and what the effects of non-verbal interactions are with © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

children. Teacher candidates participated in exercises and dialogue about proximity, gestures, facial expressions, posture, and prosodic features of language (intonation, stress, tone of voice, pitch, pace, volume) (Okon, 2011). There were discussions, demonstrations and role-play about posture and matching messages, and the importance of purposeful interactions. The impetus for the evidence-based workshop using digital technology started as a pilot project when Catherine (School Counseling Graduate Student and Graduate Assistant) received direct and non-complimentary feedback on a classroom presentation in her first year as a graduate student from Beto (School Counseling Professor) that caused her to reflect on self-awareness and presentation skills. The feedback was critical in her development as a counselor. Catherine started working as a Graduate Assistant in 2012 with Heljä (Professor in Teacher Education) with the focus on assisting with research and teachingrelated activities. Over the first year, Catherine had a professional awakening where she discovered new ways of engaging with students and professionals. Catherine shared these experiences with Heljä and the growth experienced since she had been given the feedback from Beto. In the fall of 2013, Catherine was asked to partner in one of Heljä’s classes to a local elementary school providing transportation for teacher candidates as a van driver. The practical portions of the English Language Learners course was taught at the Professional Development School. Heljä and Catherine interacted informally discussing details of the interactions going on between the children in the school and the teacher candidates interacting with them during the learning activities they had designed in the bilingual classrooms. Catherine took pictures during the visits while observing the collaboration between the adult partners with their kindergarten and second grade classes with the intention of sharing a gift with the teachers and children at the end of the semester. The insights gained from revisiting these pictures and the conversations before, during and after the van trips, the Insight To Interactions Professional Development Workshop was created. Some pictures taken without the awareness of teacher candidates, showed an interesting spectrum of observations; a continuum of facial expressions ranging from excitement to boredom, social engagement and disengagement, undesirable attire, frustration, and discomfort but also encouragement and joy in interactions with the English Language Learners. After Heljä and Catherine viewed and discussed the benefits of viewing the pictures in class and peers giving and receiving feedback, an evidence-based (through photographs) reflective professional development workshop was created using the Johari window as a framework for the workshop. The Johari Window (Halpern, 2009) is a self-awareness tool developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. The Johari Window has four quadrants. Those quadrants are: open, blind, hidden, and not known. The open quadrant is behavior that is known to the individual and to others. The blind quadrant is behavior that is known to others but not the individual. The hidden quadrant is © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

behavior that is known to the individual, but not others. Lastly, the unknown quadrant is unknown to both others and the individual. These quadrants were explored throughout the workshop by asking questions such as: How and what do we communicate to others? What are our beliefs about ourselves? How do other people perceive us? What can we do about it? What do you view as your strengths as a leader/educator? Where are your areas of improvement? Teacher candidates shared their observations and insights in pairs and in small groups with their peers. While Catherine and Heljä observed these interactions and discussions, it became apparent that the teacher candidates had built valuable relationships with one another through their experiences in the class and they were comfortable in providing constructive feedback and observations with one another. But what leads to such value in relationships? Carthy and McGilloway (2015) suggested that promoting social and emotional development is associated with both increased learning and positive academic achievement (Carthy & McGilloway, 2015). Therefore teacher candidates must be self-aware in order to teach their students similar social emotional competencies, which are often required by state standards (ISBE, n.d.)

The quality of teacher presence Purkey (2002) is known for invitational theory that supported the conceptualizing Insight to Interactions workshop created by Catherine and prompted by interactions between three university colleagues (Catherine, Heljä and Beto). In invitational theory (Purkey & Novak, 1993, Purkey & Schmidt, 1996, Haigh 2011) there are four anchoring principles: optimism, respect, trust and intentionality. A person can be unintentionally inviting or disinviting or intentionally inviting or disinviting in interactions with others in relation to the anchoring principles. Throughout the semester class meetings the intentionality of one’s persona and behavior was the topic of discussions, which Heljä purposefully brought up in relation to class activities. When looking at the Johari window, many times the quadrants are not equal or the same for every individual. It is through self-awareness and professional development experiences that the quadrant boundaries shift (Halpern, 2009). During the evidence-based professional development workshop, it was particularly important to assist teacher candidates in discovering some of their blind spots. Therefore, feedback was one of the most crucial elements of the workshop. Without feedback from peers and analysis of the photographs, teacher candidates may not have been aware of their behaviors, verbal and nonverbal. After the analysis, teacher candidates were then asked to compare both the feedback they received from their peers, to the beliefs and views they had about themselves. Purkey and Novak (1993) emphasize that positive selfimage creates a success identity that our teacher candidates were articulating while learning to analyze their own behavior, relationships and how those came © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

out to look in pictures taken by Catherine. Reviewing pictures assisted teacher candidates in expanding their own self-awareness. Through the process of constructive feedback, students were able to reflect and grow in their leadership skills and teaching styles by helping each other explore the behavior and plan for future interactions and professional demeanor. Pictures were used with teacher candidates as an important part in analyzing intentionally invitational attitudes (Purkey & Schmidt, 1996). Teacher candidates were creating big books to take to the children as a thank you for collaborating with them during the semester. When choosing pictures for the big books a thought emerged: “what can we learn from these pictures?” Teacher candidates decided that not all pictures were eligible to be chosen for the big books and shown to the children due to the messages they carried; boredom, uninviting facial expressions, postures that communicated disconnected attitudes etc. Throughout the semester Heljä’s class came back to the Johari window as a way to compare the personal journeys of teacher candidates to what was going on in the classroom with the kindergarten and second grade children.

Evidence-based Outcomes

Reflection;

Insight

into

Interactions

Workshop

The evidence-based reflective workshop was borne organically out of interactions both at the university and the elementary classroom. Outcomes were both predictable results of carefully designed activities but also serendipitously occurring intuitive lessons that went far beyond the initial intentions of the university professor. Meaningful and personal feedback is powerful in creating growth as in the case of Catherine’s professional awakening that she was able to pass on to teacher candidates who were also learning to become professionals, albeit in a different field. Teacher candidates were able to be more honest with each other because Catherine first told her story of professional growth from blind-spots and challenges to overcoming personal challenges in the public sphere. Her honest narrative cultivated an atmosphere of free sharing among the students and their own narratives and individual experiences in the classroom. Intentional actions resulted in a variety of reflection-based benefits: Active Interactions in the university classrooms were urged by many exercises, concrete activities both in modeling strategies for the ELL classroom and learning to know each other better as colleagues. These interactions became more comfortable, humorous and informal as teacher candidates rode to the elementary school together in university vans in teams driven by Catherine and Heljä. This also allowed for natural debriefing sessions that prepared teacher candidates for the elementary school visits and a discussion about the successes during each visit. Collaboration was emphasized by having the two teams going to the different classrooms to work together in designing the activities for the day prompted by the classroom teachers and related to their curriculum goals. Teacher candidates © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

continued to collaborate with one another as they reflected on their experiences in the classrooms. This collaboration resulted in the awareness teacher candidates discovered through group discussions facilitated during workshops and van rides. Connections were made between what was learned in the university classroom and the elementary classrooms. Everything we learned in theory, we got to try out in interactions with children and discuss the approaches with peers. Connections were made between the native language sensibility with that of a child who is learning a second language. Knowing how to use grammar based on your own native ability is not the same as being able to articulate and help another language learner to learn English grammar. Modeling self-reflection and asking for feedback were tools that both Catherine and Heljä used in their interactions with the teacher candidates. Courage to interact, to take risks and to openly discuss personal growth became the norm rather than an anomaly. Part of modeling self-reflection was made overt by discussing the perspectives of children in the classroom, teacher candidates, classroom teachers and the university personnel. Teacher candidates started to become more self-aware of how they intentionally and unintentionally present themselves when working with students and were able to set goals for future presentations and classroom time with young students. Hearing their peers’ viewpoint and feedback was imperative to changes seen in teacher candidates as they set goals for themselves for ongoing student interactions. Process-nature of learning is another aspect of this workshop. A string of individual events (including the Insight to Interactions workshop) both at the university, the trips in the vans and the visits to the classrooms provided continuous reflection opportunities with peers. Throughout this process relationships were built and as a class they discovered the importance of helping each other grow in a supportive environment. Everyone is in the process of learning and becoming a teacher and finding out what that might mean for each individual; how to give feedback morphed from critical, sharp and awkward feedback to more constructive, supportive and helpful by the end of the semester. Despite learning many tools and tricks for classroom experiences, teacher candidates discovered that teaching is much more of an art than a recipe from a cookbook.

Professional Growth-Teacher Candidate Feedback Professional growth was articulated both orally in class discussions and in written reflections. After the Insight to Interaction workshop, teacher candidates reflected on the entire semester’s experiences. Narratives from teacher candidates reflected growth in areas of perspective-taking, body language, professionalism and interactions in general. One candidate mentioned that the workshop “helped me look beyond how I was being as an educator to how my students were reacting to how I taught or acted”. She continued: “I think working with students that are ELL has helped me with a student that was originally a Spanish speaker in my classroom. I can gauge when she is getting © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

frustrated or confused and I know how to break things apart better to make more connections to the concept before moving on” (Teacher Candidate). This excerpt shows how teacher candidates are becoming more aware of the students’ emotional landscapes besides their own. By analyzing pictures in small groups, teacher candidates noticed a poor posture, unprofessional attire, blue hair, inappropriate skin display, disengagement (facial expressions, body postures), and proximity. These observations were articulated as intentionally disinviting (Purkey, 2002) demeanor and actions. After the workshop and school visits teacher candidates wrote: “I enjoyed looking at the pictures of my classmates and myself... I liked the look on the children’s faces when we came to the classroom... It was not only the [primary] students that were learning in the room, but my Bradley classmates and I who were learning, too.” The workshop also prepared teacher candidates for their student teaching experience following this course. A teacher candidate wrote: “I feel like I will continue to have people observe my teaching because I have trouble making conclusions or understanding my strengths and weaknesses if I don't see something. If I'm focused on a lesson, I might not notice the one student wedged in between the two strong students who doesn't understand a concept, so I need to practice becoming more aware of every child instead of just the whole group. ” This shifting between individual children and the whole group is an important part of learning group management and group dynamics. “Withitness” (Charles, 2011) is the term used in classroom management literature for the awareness of being able to do what needs to be done. Perspective-taking developed through the reflective analyses during the workshop. The evidence-based reflective workshop also benefited in allowing for teacher candidates to see their self-identity as a success identity (Purkey & Novak, 1993). “After the workshops, I take my role as an educator more seriously; dressing and acting like I know what I am doing. As a compliment to this; one of the Bradley students thought that I was a professor at the University during the Literacy Fiesta” (Teacher Candidate). Honest feedback was crucial in allowing for the growth to occur. The four anchors of invitational theory (Purkey & Schmidt, 1996); optimism, respect, trust and intentionality were seen both in interactions between teacher candidates during the photograph analysis but also in their written reflections: “The problem was that no one had pointed this out before. Now that the problem is in the light, something can be done about the defect. I think that videotaping myself teaching will be a great experience. I will be my worst critic and I might over-think my defects more than there actually are, but I am looking forward to the practice” (Teacher Candidate). This excerpt demonstrated Teacher Candidates’ changed perspective on receiving professional feedback as an important tool they can employ in their own career. Internal dialogue, the courage to ponder on the quality of © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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interactions and self-identity became valuable tools not to be feared but to appreciate. Invitational theory (Purkey & Schmidt, 1990) emphasizes understanding things from an internal point of view --- this becomes reflective when imagining the photographer is in the mirror taking pictures of us looking at ourselves, a valuable tool for awareness in how we talk to ourselves in our professional realms. Because of a trusting atmosphere and enough time spent to learn to know each other, in terms of the Johari window (Halpern, 2009), our open selves expanded and interactions flowed more easily as the semester progressed.

Conclusion We have shared the evidence-based reflective Insight into Interactions professional development workshop with professionals across our region in conferences. Professional discussions brought up insights of how culture-bound some of our reactions and interpretations might have been (for example body language). Similar to Thomas and Seely Brown’s (2011) viewpoint: The new culture of learning,” where they discuss the one person cannot create a culture but in interaction with others we become transformed. What is interesting, is the process itself and moving and developing along with the organic culture the interactions invite. This does take courage and involves trust. Besides articulate learning goals, being open and intentionally invitational we often serendipitously learn more than we had hoped for. Thomas and Seely Brown (2011) suggest that we “embrace what we don’t know, come up with better questions about it, and continue asking those questions in order to learn more, both incrementally and exponentially” ( p. 38). In our work we found self-awareness enlarging the public space of the Johari window within ourselves, and observed it in our teacher candidates as well as in discussions with the classroom teachers. Trusting the process gave unexpectedly positive results in learning and pointed to paths otherwise unseen. The serendipitous coming together of the writers allowed for perspectives to be developed that used both experiential and disciplinary experiences previously hidden in the academic context we inhabited. The collaboration among the three university professionals pleasantly surprised us as far as how beneficial it really is to work across disciplinary lines although there are other examples that show the power of working with professionals outside of our own fields (Antola Crowe, Brandes, Davison Avilés, Erickson & Hall, 2013). Prompted by our successful experiences, Heljä continues to use the idea of picture taking, analysis and reflection in the course for teacher candidates to articulate their learning and their progress in learning to become their best professional selves. Although teacher candidates were the primary focus in this instance, this process and workshop could be useful in any field where people interact with each other. Serendipity in our emerging project was marked by the confluence of spontaneity and intentionality---using language as a professional tool. As professionals we are on our feet all the time so we have to use our © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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intuition and the urge and the courage to act on it. Intuition springs from our past experiences and the strength found in our professional competencies. Intuitions are more than just hunches. They are reflective practice operating within a cognitive feedback loop that is sometimes not apparent to us. Intentionality in professional articulation reaps both a joyful sharing and a deep learning within groups of colleagues. Both students and community cultures benefit from such positive action because we reflect on how all of us, regardless of our roles in learning, become a success identity that we can use as stepping stones in our future professional growth. In preparation of professionals, colleagues are mirrors who can support, encourage and critique us. In reality, we need the capacity to self-supervise and to have an invitational inner dialogue when no-one is witnessing, not even the paparazzi.

References Antola Crowe, H., Brandes, K., Davison Avilés, B., Erickson, D., Hall, D. (2013). Transdisciplinary teaching: Professionalism across cultures. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 3(13), July 2013. Carthy, A. & McGilloway, S. (2015, June 2). Thinking outside the box: Promoting learning through emotional and social skills development. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191, 2655 – 2660. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.647 Charles, C. M. (2011). Building classroom discipline. New York: Allyn & Bacon. Haigh, M. (2011). Invitational Education: Theory, Research and Practice. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(2), 299-309. Halpern, H. (2009). Supervision and the Johari Window: A framework for asking questions. Education for Primary Care, 20, 10-14. ISBE (n.d.). Illinois learning standards: Social/emotional learning standards. Retrieved on April 28, 2016. http://www.isbe.net/ils/social_emotional/standards.htm Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experiences as the source of learning and development. http://sonlife.com/international/articles/interculturalcompetency.asp Okon, J. (2011). Role of Non-Verbal Communication in Education. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2(5), 35-40. Purkey, W. (2002). Foreword. In Schmidt, J. J. Intentional helping: A philosophy for proficient caring relationships (pp. V-VI). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, Prentice Hall. Purkey, W. W., & Schmidt, J. J. (1996). Invitational counseling; A self-concept approach to professional practice. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Purkey, W. & Novak, J. (1993). The Invitational helix: A systemic guide for individual and organizational. Development Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice, 1993, Vo. 2, No. 2) Rolfe, G. (2014). Rethinking reflective education: What would Dewey have done? Nurse Education Today. 34(8), 1179-1183 Schön, Donald A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. Jossey-Bass Higher Education series. San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass. Thomas, D. & Seely Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning. Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: Create Space.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 102-113, May 2016

Examining the Effect of Playing an Arithmeticbased Game- “Chopsticks” on the Arithmetical Competencies of 5-year-old Children in Singapore Marcruz Yew.Lee. Ong Graduate School of Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan Manabu Kawata, PhD Research and Clinical Center for Child Development, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. Abstract. In this study, the authors examined the effect of playing an arithmetic-based game- “Chopsticks” has on young children’s arithmetical competencies. A total of 21 young children (Mean age: 4 years 11 months) from two typical early childhood settings in Singapore were randomized to an experimental group (n=10) and a control group (n=11). Those in the experimental group attended the learning and playing sessions of “Chopsticks” for a 4-week period, while those in the control group did not attend. All participants were administered with a Pre-test and post-test, which comprised 10 simple addition items each. The statistical results revealed that both groups of children performed at the same level in the pre-test. However, after the 4-week playing session of “Chopsticks”, children in the experimental group managed to solve more items and utilize a shorter time to solve the items than children in the control group. Therefore, the authors suggested that playing “Chopsticks” enhances young children’s arithmetical competencies. Keywords: “Chopsticks”; arithmetical competencies; learning; early childhood settings

1. Introduction In recent years, the issues involving the relation between children’s early mathematics skills and their later mathematical competencies have been studied extensively by numerous researchers (Chu, vanMarie and Geary, 2015 ;Classens and Engel, 2013; Duncan et al., 2007; Franzen, 2015; Jacobi-Vessels, Todd Brown, Molfese and Do, 2016; Manfra, Dinehart and Sembiante, 2014). For instance, in Duncan et al (2007)’s study, 6 longitudinal data sets were used and analysed to determine the relationship between school readiness (academic, attention and socioemotional skills), and children’s school reading and mathematical competencies in their later stage. All 6 studies revealed that the early © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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mathematics skills (one of the studied academic skills) emerged as one of the strongest predictor of young children’s mathematical competencies in their later stage. Similarly, Manfra, Dinehart and Sembiante (2014) also stressed the importance of early mathematics skills as their study revealed that there is a strong link between children’s early mathematics skills and their achievements in mathematics in later stage. Together, all these studies have yielded convincing insights for us to believe how crucial the early mathematics skills has on children’s mathematical development. Therefore, it is an aspect that we should not fail to take into consideration in any form of research involving mathematical development or cognition. As we can now understand the importance of early mathematics skills, this leads us to another important issue on how young children acquire and develop their mathematics skills during this crucial period. As a matter of fact, children are innately endowed with a certain level of mathematics skills (Antell and Keating, 1983; Wynn, 1996), and these skills are usually enhanced and developed as the children are participating in different forms of activities with other individuals in their communities (Guberman, 2004; Ong, in press; Rogoff, 2003; Sakakibara, 2014; Saxe, 1991). Among these activities, young children spend a considerable amount of time playing various types of games, such as board games, card games and sports games, with their parents at home and their teachers and peers in early childhood settings. Though playing games is often perceived as a leisure or recreational activity (Ajzen and Driver 1991; Shawn and Dawson 2001), the past studies had reported that children tend to acquire and develop different types of mathematics skills from games which often contain some forms of mathematics (Early et al. 2010; Gerdes, 2001; Ramani and Sielger 2008). Considering such, having young children engaged in games plays a much more vital role in young children’s mathematical development than we thought to be. 2. Playing games and mathematical development Over the years, researchers have been investigating on how playing games benefits young children’s development, especially in the area of mathematics (Barta and Schaelling, 1998; Bragg, 2003; Cutler et al. 2003; Gerdes, 2001; Ramani and Sielger, 2008). For example, Peters (1998) reported that 5-year-old children who played mathematics games with parental supervision, improved more than their counterparts who did not play the games, in the areas of number sequence, number patterns, and enumeration. Furthermore, Ainley (1990) and Bragg (2003) pointed that games often occur in a more meaningful context, thus they are more likely to attract the attention of the children. For this reason, the learning of mathematics through games tends to be a better and more effective mean in motivating children as compared to other means of learnings, such as rote learning or practising mathematics worksheets. Despite there being large literatures that examine the benefits of playing games have on the young children’s basic numerical skills, such as numeral identification, counting, and estimation (Barta and Schaelling, 1998; Cutler et al, © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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2003; Gerdes, 2001; Ramani and Sielger, 2008), arithmetic skills has seldom been the issue of similar investigation. It should not be overlooked as it serves as a foundation for the development of addition and subtraction, which is one of the most essential and important skills required when children proceed to elementary schools (Jordan, Kaplan, Ramineni, and Locuniak, 2009). Furthermore, the skill is also very important to young children as they often use it to solve different problems in their everyday lives (Bjorklund & Rosenblum, 2001; Sakakibara 2008). Yet, to our knowledge, a dearth of studies, that centred on young children’s arithmetic skills in the context of playing games, only examined the developmental and contextual effects on young children’s addition strategies in playing board games (Bjorklund and Rosenblum, 2001; Bjorklund, Hubertz and Reubens 2004). However, these studies rarely examined the effect of playing games has on young children’s arithmetic skills empirically, especially their arithmetical competencies, and this can be a piece of vital information for the educators when they design the curriculum for young children in the early childhood settings. Therefore, this is an area that we should not overlook and it is worth investigating. In view of these considerations, the purpose of this study is to explore whether by playing an arithmetic-based game - “Chopsticks” will improve the arithmetical competencies of young children in Singapore.

3. “Chopsticks” In our pilot work for this study, we found that “Chopsticks” is one of the most popular games in Singapore as young children are often seen playing the game with their peers during their play time, meal times and even during the intervals between lessons in many early childhood settings. “Chopsticks” is basically a hand game which is commonly played by two players, and each player has to use both hands. It requires the players to possess at least some arithmetic skills in order to play the game. The number of extended fingers on each hand will represent the number of points the hand has. The hand with all five fingers extended will be considered as a “dead hand”. Therefore, a player who has extended all fingers on his both hands loses the game. Both players start the game with one extended finger on each of their both hands which resemble a pair of chopsticks. The players take turns to tap their opponent’s hand. The number of points on the tapping hand will be added to the points on the tapped hand, and the tapped player will extend the added points to show the new score. The tapping hand remains at the same points. The player can transfer points from one hand to the other by tapping his own hand. For example, if he has one point on his left hand and three points on his right hand, he can tap his own hands to rearrange the points into two points on each hand, this is also known as splitting. As we have explained the method of playing “chopsticks”, it is clear that the © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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players have to calculate and monitor the points on their own and opponent’s hands continuously to avoid the “dead hand”. For this reason, children playing “Chopsticks” are likely to use more arithmetic skills than that of other extensively studied games such as, “Chutes and Ladders”, and “Checkers”. This can also suggest that playing “Chopsticks” may have a greater effect in enhancing the arithmetical competencies of those young children who play it on a regular basis. This also explains why we have selected “Chopsticks” in our study. In order to establish the effect on young children’s arithmetical competencies, we will be comparing the test results and the time taken to solve problem of those 5-year-old Singaporean children from the experimental and control groups in their pre-test and post-test. The details of the study will be discussed in our next section.

4. Methodology 4.1 Participants A total of 21 young children (10 girls, 11 boys), who were ranging from 4 years 9 months to 5 years 3 months in age, and had no knowledge of “Chopsticks” from two typical early childhood settings in Singapore were selected as participants. They were randomly assigned to two different groups: experimental and control groups. These children were selected instead of those who already knew the game, as it would be difficult to determine the effects of playing “Chopsticks” had on those who know the game since they had different levels of exposure to the game prior to the study. For this reason, we only selected those who had no knowledge of “Chopsticks”. 10 Children in the experimental group were taught how to play “Chopsticks” while the remaining 11 children were in the control group. In other words, only the children in the experimental group learnt and played “Chopsticks” in this study. Before the study, all participants were tested to ensure that they had the ability to count to 10 and performed simple addition problems. 25 children were tested, and 23 met the criteria. We had further removed two children from the control group as we discovered that they had learnt to play “Chopsticks” from their peers during the course of our 4-week study. Therefore, we had 21 children participated in this study. The researchers had obtained both informed consent from parents and assent from children prior to the study. These were voluntarily provided by parents and children without feeling any pressure to accede to be involved in this study. Procedures and items in the study were slightly modified to eliminate any potential stress in children. In addition, all children were given the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any time, and all their information are treated confidentially.

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competencies before and after playing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chopsticksâ&#x20AC;?, namely the pre-test and post-test, respectively. The similar tasks were also administered to the children in the control group. The pre-test included 10 addition items with sums less than 10, and consisted of only addends 1 to 4, which corresponded to the possible addends during the game. The items in post-test were identical to those in pre-test, however the items were arranged in different sequence. Details of the pre-test and post-test items are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Descriptions of the Pre-test and Post-test items

Pre-test

Post-test

1+1

2+1

2+4

1+4

3+3

2+2

2+4

3+3

3+1

2+2

4+3

1+1

4+4

3+2

4.3 Procedures 4.3.1 Pre-test and post-test Pre-test was administered prior to the learning session and playing session, and post-test was administered at the end of the 4-week playing session. The children were seated at a low-lying table directly facing the researcher and were tested individually in a quiet study room. All the 10 pre-test items and 10 post-test items were read out one at a time to the children, and they were told to verbalise their answers to the researcher. After the test, the children were asked ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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to wait in another room till all the children had finished the tests. By doing so, we can ensure that those children who had finished the test will not have the chance to discuss the problems with those who had yet to do the test.

4.3.2 Learning session 10 children in the experimental group first attended three learning sessions to learn how to play “Chopsticks” in two groups. In each 15-min session, the children sat on the floor facing the researcher as he explained the rules and ways of playing “Chopsticks” to the children. All children had a chance to practise playing “Chopsticks” with the researcher. In order to ensure that all children were able to play the game, the researcher played the game with each child for 5 minutes after the three learning sessions. All 10 children did not have difficulty in comprehending and playing the game, and proceeded to the playing session.

4.3.3 Playing session All children in the experimental group attended the playing session in pairs for 15 minutes thrice per week over a 4-week period. In order to make the playing session similar to the natural setting of playing games in the early childhood setting, the children played “Chopsticks” with their peers instead of with the researcher. However, they played the game in the presence of the researcher in a quiet room, while the researcher sat beside each pair ensuring that they played only “Chopsticks” and guided them if need arose, during each 15 minutes session. The children attended the playing session in a pair at a time.

4.3.4 Control group 11 children in the control group were excluded from the both learning and playing session. The researcher had also conducted weekly individual interview session with each child to ensure that they did not get to learn “Chopsticks” during the course of the 4-week study. During the weekly interviews, the researcher asked these children questions such as had they heard of the game “Chopsticks”, did they know how to play the game, and did anyone teach them how to play the game recently. Through the interviews, two children revealed that they had recently learnt “Chopsticks” from their peers and they were removed from the control group.

4.4 Independent variables The arithmetical competencies of the children were determined by the two independent variables- children’s test scores (pre-test and post-test), and their time taken to solve problem in this study. Firstly, the total scores of pre-test and post-test items for each child were measured. One point was awarded for each correctly solved item, with a maximum of 10 points. Secondly, the time taken to solve each item correctly was measured in seconds by the researcher. He started the stopwatch when he presented an item and stopped it when the children answered. According to Bull and Johnston (1997), one is likely to take a shorter time to solve easy arithmetic problems. © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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We expected that, due to the effects of playing “Chopsticks” have on the children’s arithmetical competencies, the children in the experimental group will tend to achieve a higher score and require a shorter time to solve the items in their post-test than in their pre-test. We also expect this group of children will perform better in the 2 variables than the children in the control group in the post-test.

5. Findings 5.1 Test Scores The control group’s children scored an average of 6.18 out of a total of 10 for pretest items, and an average of 6.27 out of a total of 10 for post-test items. Conversely, experimental group’s children performed better in post-test items than pre-test items, with an average score of 7.40 and 6.20, respectively (Figure 1). Two way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA)’s results showed that there was a significant Groups’ test scores × Test types interaction, F (1, 19) = 6.61, p< .05. In addition, simple main effect tests were also performed to determine statistically whether the test scores of experimental group’s children and control group’s children differed across the test types. The statistical analysis revealed that the effect of the test types for the experimental group is significant, F (1, 19) = 14.78, p< .001. However, the effect of the test types for the control group is not significant, F (1, 19) = 0.09, n.s. 10 Control Group

Test scores

Experimental Group

6 4 2 0 Pre-test

Post-test Test Types

Figure 1. Test scores over the test types

In view of these results, it is evident that playing “Chopsticks” had resulted the children in the experimental group to solve more items correctly in the post-test than in the pre-test. In contrast, children in the control group, who did not play the game, had similar pre-test and post-test result.

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Control group’s children took an average of 3.12 seconds and 3.30 seconds to solve pre-test and post-test items, respectively. In contrast, experimental group’s children’s solving time for pre-test and post-test items were 3.23 seconds, and 2.00 seconds, respectively (Figure 2). Two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted, and there was a significant Groups’ solving time × Test types interaction, F (1, 19) = 15.97, p< .001. In order to statistically determine whether both groups’ children’s solving time differed across the types of tests, simple main effect tests were also conducted. The statistical analysis revealed that the effect of the test types for the experimental group is significant, F (1, 19) = 23.28, p= .001. In contrast, the effect of the test types for the control group is not significant, F (1, 19) = 0.53, n.s.

Problem Solving Time(Seconds)

5 Control Group 4 Experimental Group 3

0 Pre-test

Post-test Test Types

Figure 2. Solving time over the test types

In view of these results, there are good grounds to believe that playing the “chopsticks” games had resulted children in the experimental group to solve items faster in the post-test than in the pre-test. On other hand, there was not much difference in the problem solving time between the pre-test and post-test of the control group’s children.

6. Discussion This study is the first to examine whether playing the arithmetic-based game“Chopsticks” will enhance the arithmetical competencies of young children. Our findings add to the existing literatures, that support playing games has positive impacts on the development of children’s early mathematical achievement (Cutler et al, 2003; Griffin, 2004; Klein and Starkey, 2004), by revealing the improvement of young children’s arithmetical competencies when they played the “Chopsticks” on a regular basis during our 4-week study. In fact, before the “Chopsticks” was introduced to the children in the experimental group, they performed almost on par with those in the control © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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group, in terms of average test scores and problem solving time in the pre-test. In other words, children in both groups, on average, had near identical level of arithmetical competencies at the beginning of the study. However, the distinct differences between the two groups set in during the post-test stage, when the experimental group’s children who learnt and played “Chopsticks” in this study tend to solve more addition items and solve the items faster as compared to their own pre-test’s results and their counterparts in the control group. Taking into consideration all the data from both groups’ children, there are good grounds to believe that playing “Chopsticks” have yielded improvement in young children’s arithmetical competencies. However, how does playing “Chopsticks” enhance young children’s arithmetical competencies? As mentioned earlier, compared to other popular games such as, “Chutes and Ladders”, and “Checkers” (Ramani & Siegler, 2008), “Chopsticks” requires the players to possess not only a higher level of arithmetic skills but also use more arithmetic skills. This is especially true because the players in each pair need to calculate and monitor the points on their own and opponent’s hands continuously, as the points will change after each tap during the playing session. In other words, each player has to solve addition problems, with addends between 1 and 4, in a relatively fast speed, in order to keep up with the pace of their opponent and continue the game. Therefore, having to learn and play “Chopsticks” over the period of 4 weeks had led the children in the experimental group to develop the ability to solve more addition problems and at a faster speed which were reflected in our findings. Conversely, the arithmetical competencies of those children in the control group remained unchanged throughout our study.

7. Implications These findings are beneficial for Singapore’s early childhood educators and parents by providing insights into the effect of playing “Chopsticks” has on the development of arithmetical competencies in Singapore young children. Based on the findings, it has become more apparent for parents and early childhood educators in both Singapore and other countries which place strong educational emphasis on the assessment of learning and formal lessons (Ong, Kawata and Takahashi, in press) to understand that playing games does also play a vital role in the development of young children’s arithmetical competencies besides academic based activities. In addition, playing games has also been reported to be more effective than other means of learning as games often occur in a more meaningful context, which in turn motivates children to learn (Ainley 1990; Bragg, 2003; Cutler et al, 2003). This may also help to raise an even higher awareness among early childhood educators about the importance of including more arithmetic-based games in their early childhood curriculum to make learning mathematics more interesting and easier for the children. Further, apart from other popular board games, such as “Chutes and Ladder” and “Checkers”, the “Chopsticks” can be an alternative game which early childhood educators may be suggested to add into their curriculum for mathematics learning. The “Chopsticks” tends to have greater advantages over © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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most of the other games as it only involves the use of hands. Thus, educators can teach the young children arithmetic with this game easily and conveniently without the use of any other material besides their hands.

8. Limitations and Future Research Directions Similar to other studies, this study also has some limitations. For instance, this study only examined a relatively small number of young children in Singapore, and this might not generalise the results. Therefore, a larger sample size of children is required for future studies. In addition, this larger sample size shall comprise children of different age groups, since previous studies, which centred on other games, such as “Chutes and Ladder”, have reported that due to the process of mathematical development, children across age groups tend to play the game differently. For instance the use of different types of addition strategies (Bjorklund & Rosenblum, 2001). Therefore, by examining children in the different age groups playing “Chopsticks” may unfold other issues relating to the effects of playing games have on the development of young children’s arithmetical competencies. Next, the players only deal with addends from 1 to 4 in the existing “Chopsticks”. However, young children deal with more than just addends ranging from 1 to 4 in their everyday lives. For this reason, future studies may want to modify the game of “Chopsticks” in such a way that more and higherdigit numbers can be included into this game. And by doing so, the benefits of playing “Chopsticks” will be even more applicable to the everyday lives of young children. As mentioned earlier, this is the first study to examine the effect of playing “Chopsticks” has on young children’s arithmetic skills, especially in the area of competencies. Therefore, it lays a foundation for other future studies not only investigate deeper into the relation between playing “chopsticks” and young children’s arithmetical competencies, but also uncover other potential issues involving the development of young children’s arithmetic skills, which remain to be unanswered by other previous studies that centered on those extensively studied games. Hence, this is may be another area which is worth investigating in future studies.

9. Acknowledgements I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Dr. Kawata Manabu, who has been my advisor and mentor since my Master’s degree course.. He has been giving me valuable support, encouragement, and steering me in the right direction whenever he thought I needed it. In addition, I would also like to thank all the early childhood settings’ teachers and children who participated in this work. Last but not least, I also express my sincere appreciation to my brother, Mr. Youxiang Wang, who assisted in the proof-reading of this work.

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10. References Antell, S. E., and Keating, D. P. (1983). Perception of numerical invariance in neonates. Child Development, 54, 695-701. Ajzen, I., and Driver, B.L. (1991). Prediction of leisure participation from behavioral, normative, and control beliefs: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Leisure Sciences, 13(3), 185-204. Ainley, J. (1990). Playing games and learning mathematics: 84-91 of Transforming children’s mathematics education: International perspectives, eds. Steffe, L.P., and T. Wood. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Barta, J., and Schaelling, D. (1998). Games we play: Connecting mathematics and culture in the classroom. Teaching Children Mathematics, 4, 388-393. Bjorklund, D.F., and Rosenblum, K.E. (2001). Children’s use of multiple and variable addition strategies in a game context. Developmental Science, 4, 184-194. Bjorklund, D.F., Hubertz, M.J., and Ruebens, A.C. (2004). Young children’s arithmetic strategies in social context: How parents contribute to children’s strategy development while playing games. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28(4), 347-357. Bull, R., and Johnston, R.S. (1997). Children's arithmetical difficulties: Contributions from processing speed, item identification, and short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 65, 1-24. Bragg, L.A. (2003). Children’s perspectives on mathematics and game playing. In Bragg, L., Campbell, C., Herbert, G., & Mousley, J., eds. MERINO: Mathematics education research: Innovation, networking, opportunity. Proceedings of the 26 th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, July 610, In Geelong, Australia. Chu, F.W., vanMarie, K., and Geary, D.C. (2015). Early numerical foundations of young children’s mathematical development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 132. 205 – 212. Claessens, A., and Engel, M. (2013). How important is where you start? Early mathematics knowledge and later school success. Teachers College Record, 115, 1– 29. Cutler, K.M., Gilkerson, D., Parrott, S., and Bowne, M.T. (2003). Developing math games based on children’s literature. Young Children, 58, 22–27. Duncan, G.J., Dowsett, C.J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A.C., Klebanov, P., Pagani, L.S., Feinstein, L., Engel, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., et al. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1428– 1446. Early, D.M., Iruka, I.U., Ritchie, S., Barbarin, O.A., Winn, D-M.C., Crawford, G.M., Frome, P.M., Clifford, R.M., Burchinal, M., Howes, C., et al. (2010). How do prekindergarteners spend their time? Gender, ethnicity, and income as predictors of experiences in pre-kindergarten classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 177-193. Franzen, K. (2015). Under threes’ mathematical learning. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 23(1), 43-54. Gerdes, P. (2001). Exploring the game of “Julirde”: A mathematical-educational game played by Fulbe children in Cameroon. Teaching Children Mathematics, 7, 321– 327. Griffin, S. (2004). Building number sense with number worlds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19(1), 173-180.

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Guberman, S. R. (2004). A comparative study of children’s out-of-school activities and arithmetical achievements. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 35(2), 117-150. Jacobi-Vessels, J. L., Todd Brown, E., Molfse, V. J., and Do, A. (2016). Teaching preschoolers to count: Effective strategies for achieving early mathematics milestones. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44, 1-9. Jordan, N.C., Kaplan, D, Ramineni, C., and Locuniak, M.N.. (2009). Early math matters: Kindergarten number competence and later mathematics outcomes. Developmental Psychology, 45, 850-867. Klein, A., and Starkey, P. (2004). Scott Foresman – Addison Wesley Mathematics: Pre-K. Glenview, IL: Pearson Scott Foresman. Manfra, L., Dinehart, L., and Sembiante, S. (2014). Associations between counting ability in preschool and mathematic performance in first grade among a sample of ethnically diverse, low income children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education International, 28, 101–114. Ong, M. Y. L. (in press). Young children and mathematics: A relook at mathematical development from sociocultural perspectives. Bulletin of Faculty of Education, Hokkaido University, 125. Ong, M. Y. L., Kawata, M and Takahashi, M. (in press). The relation between frequently exposed context in the early childhood settings’ mathematical activities and arithmetic skills: A cross-cultural comparison of 6-year-old children in Singapore and Japan. International Journal of Education and Research. Peters, S. (1998). Playing games and learning mathematics: The results of two intervention studies. International Journal of Early Years Education, 6, 49–58. Ramani, G. B., and Siegler, R. S. (2008). Promoting broad and stable improvements in low-income children’s numerical knowledge through playing number board games. Child Development, 79, 375–394. Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York. Oxford University Press. Sakakibara, T. (2008). Young children’s mathematical development in the sociocultural context. Kazama Shobo. Sakakibara, T. (2014). Sansuu・rika wo manabu kodomo no hatatsushinrigaku bunka・ninchi・gakusyuu. [Children’s learning of Mathematics and Science]. Mineruua syobou. (In Japanese). Saxe, G.B. (1991). Culture and cognitive development: studies in mathematical development. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Shaw, S.M., and Dawson, D. (2001). Purposive leisure: Examining parental discourses on family activities. Leisure Sciences, 23(4), 217-231. Wynn, K. (1996). Infants’ individuation and enumeration of action. Psychological Science, 7(3), 164-169.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 114-126, May 2016

Modelling in Vietnamese School Mathematics Danh Nam Nguyen Thai Nguyen University of Education Thai Nguyen, Vietnam Abstract. This paper presents empirical research about implementing mathematical modelling in the secondary schools in Vietnam. The data from experiments have shown that there were some cognitive barriers in introducing modelling to the classroom and designing real world models for teaching. However, we have concluded that modelling is one of the active teaching methods and the teachers can provide their students with appropriate interventions to support them interpreting about the role of mathematics in reality. Furthermore, by participating in modelling activities, the students would develop their problem solving skills and regularly adjust their thinking. Keywords. mathematical modelling; modelling teaching; modelling method; modelling process.

INTRODUCTION In the last few decades, a lot of researchers have dealt with the problem of how to use mathematical modelling and its application in teaching mathematics at all levels in schools (Blum & Leiß, 2007; Maaß, 2007). In recent years, modelling has been considered as a new trend for research on problem solving in mathematics education (Lesh & Zawojewski, 2007; Kaiser, 2014). The results of this empirical research provided a new approach in teaching applied to mathematics and opened new ways of thinking about integrating real world situations in the process of learning and teaching school mathematics. Mathematical modelling is a process of applying mathematical concepts to new and unfamiliar situations. It relates to discovering a real situation, collecting data, making a hypothesis, building a model (equations, functions, symbolic structures, etc.), representing the model, interpreting the results, improving/revising the model, and answering the questions about real-world situations (Dan & Xie, 2011; Lingefjärd, 2006; Swetz & Hartler, 1991). A mathematical model is the product of the modelling process. It is created using suitable mathematical tools and methods. It can be expressed through a set of symbols, notations, graphs of data, geometric figures, tables, formulae, © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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functions, equations, and systems of equations that describe complex relationships among real world situations or phenomena. Hence, mathematical modelling is an effective strategy to apply mathematics in interpreting various areas of life such as medicine, engineering, finance, economics, weather forecasting, ecology, sports, arts and computer science. More specifically, these phenomena can be described by laws of nature and mathematical modelling makes the laws predictable. For example, a graph of a parabola presents the motion of an object dropped from a height above the ground; a graph of exponential functions shows the population growth. Similarly, populations of predator and prey in an ecosystem, the unemployment rate, a risk factor for a disease, the effectiveness of a medical treatment, population growth, etc. can be represented by graphs of different functions that students are taught in schools (Biembengut & Hein, 2010; Blum & Ferri, 2009; Frejd & Bergsten, 2016). Hence, it could be said that mathematical modelling connects studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; real life experiences with mathematics knowledge at schools. A modelling task engages students in solving a mathematically rich problem and developing mathematical thinking. It is a tool that helps students to understand about application of the mathematical concepts because it requires students to apply mathematical knowledge into real life and to extend the concepts beyond rote learning (Dan & Xie, 2011; Galbraith, Stillman & Brown, 2010; Lesh & Zawojewski, 2007; Kaiser & Stillman, 2015). Students should be provided an opportunity to build, determine and look for the best fitting model for real world data by sketching graphs of functions that represent important mathematical ideas and methods (NCTM, 2000). In the last few decades, curricula reforms in many developed countries have concentrated on mathematical modelling in their revised school curricula and textbooks. Students are encouraged to look for situations in their real life and to pose the problems by making questions and formulating conjectures (Brown & Walter, 2005; Kang & Noh, 2012). Students need to understand the real world applications of mathematics so that they can solve problems both in everyday life and in the sciences. To solve mathematical modelling problems successfully, the teacher should teach their students how to do a realistic project, to collaborate with others and to create open discussion among members of the group. The teacher should also encourage students to use the functions of computers or calculators in modelling real life phenomena such as graphing tools, dynamic geometry environment, computer algebra system, simulations, dynamic spreadsheets, statistical packages, etc. In particular, during the teaching process, the teacher should encourage their students to use multi-representations of collected data (e.g., graphs, tables, equations, diagrams, pictures, etc.), and to

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choose and utilize appropriate mathematical methods and tools in solving non-routine problems. In recent years, radical and comprehensive renovation of education and training at all levels has been a significant focus in Vietnam. This reform aims to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization, dynamic systems of information in a knowledge-based economy, and international integration. In this renovation, there will be fundamental changes in curricula design and textbook compilation. The new curricula will be highly integrated in lower levels and highly selective and specialized in higher levels. By the end of the junior secondary education, students have acquired sufficient knowledge, virtue and necessary skills for vocational training and capability of new labourers. In the previous educational reform, modelling activities were under-emphasized in Vietnamese mathematics curricula and textbooks (Nguyen & Tran, 2013). However, the newly revised mathematics curricula have focused on important mathematical ideas and processes that promote students working with complex systems, such as investigating, conjecturing, justifying, representing, and explaining together with real life data and phenomena. As a result, modelling and problem solving have become core parts of the process of teaching mathematics at all educational levels. In other words, in new mathematics curricula, modelling and its application are important features. Students use modelling to get insight into mathematical concepts and understand about the applications of these concepts to studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; life experiences. Mathematical modelling is also a compulsory competency within the national standards from primary to secondary school and studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; competency profile.

THE MODELLING PROCESS IN THE CLASSROOM Modelling as a Teaching Method In this research, we consider modelling as a method of teaching mathematics aimed at providing students with an opportunity to read, to interpret, to formulate and to solve specific real world problems. This approach helps the students to use mathematical concepts to solve realistic problems that they may encounter in life. By using this method, students are able to look at the world through a mathematical lens and develop better comprehension of the world. Especially, as the students work with data from real life, they need to find mathematical ideas to understand the data and validate their conjectures. In primary education, teachers use figures, shapes, concrete materials, drawings, diagrams, and pictures to present arithmetic operations (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). In secondary education, teachers could guide students to use graphs and symbolic equations to represent ÂŠ 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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relationships among quantities. In particular, in high school the students are taught about linear, quadratic, exponential, trigonometric, and polynomial functions as algebraic models. These models represent complex situations or phenomena around students’ lives. Throughout our study, we have concentrated on the feasibility of mathematical modelling activities in the classroom. We suggested that teachers provide their students with supporting questions or hints during tackling modelling tasks. In our point of view, this approach would train the following students’ modelling skills: simplifying hypotheses; clarifying the goal; determining variables and parameters; formulating mathematical problems; selecting or building a mathematical model; graphical representations; and relating back to the real context. The context must be provided by the teachers. Therefore, the teachers need to look for real world situations or models and bring them to the classroom with the aim of helping their students to interpret the nature of a mathematical concept as well as its applications in real life. In other words, the teachers should identify the situations which link to students’ everyday life or to other fields like finance, bank, medicine, sports, arts, and so on. The teachers can also facilitate their students’ activities by giving them simple modelling situations at the beginning stage and more complex modelling tasks at the next stage. The Modelling Process There are many variations of the modelling processes; however, most of them are basically similar. Many researchers considered modelling as a multi-step process (Blum & Ferri, 2009; Galbraith, Stillman & Brown, 2010; Swetz & Hartzler, 1991). The process started with a real life situation or a problem that stems from other fields such as biology or physics by posing/asking a question or situation. The process continues with formulating conjectures and developing a model in mathematical terms and simplifications are made if necessary. In other words, the students need to calculate the measurement of given objects to identify the relationships among quantities and establish a function, an equation or system of equations. We call this phase of process mathematisation. Then the mathematical problem can be solved (solving an equation, graphing data, etc.). We call this step working with the model. Finally the results of the original problem must to be interpreted, validated, disseminated, and revised in a real context. In Vietnamese mathematics classrooms, we applied the following sevenstage modelling process: (1) real-world problem; (2) make assumptions; (3) formulate mathematical problem; (4) solve the mathematical problem; (5) interpret the solution; (6) verify the model; (7) report, explain, predict. During the modelling process, the students must transfer among these © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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steps such as understanding the realistic task, simplifying the task, mathematising, solving mathematical problems, interpreting results, and revising the model (Blum & Ferri, 2009; Kang &Noh, 2012). However, during the experimental teaching period, we also realized that different classrooms may have implemented the modelling process in a very different way. 1. Specify the real world problem

6. Validate the model

2. Define a mathematical model

5. Interpret the solution

3. Formulate a mathematical problem

4. Solve the mathematical problem

7. Use the model to explain, predict or decide

Figure 1: Main stages in modelling (adapted from Mason, 1988) In figure 1, the teachers started the modelling process with a real world situation. Then the situation is re-structured and simplified in order to build a mathematical model. Then the students used mathematical languages to convert the model to a mathematical problem. Mathematical tools and methods are applied to attempt the problem. The result is reflected with the initial problem. The appropriate results are tested and verified. Finally, the model can be improved so that it can represent the situation better. Therefore, we used modelling in the classroom with the purpose of applying mathematics to: (1) understand observed phenomena in real life (e.g., engineering, physics, physiology, ecology, chemistry, economics, sports, music); (2) examine related questions about the phenomena; (3) clarify the phenomena in real context; (4) test hypotheses; and (5) predict about the real world. Example 1. Teacher gave students a photograph showing the motion of water spouting out from Merlion (a Singapore landmark). Then the teacher asked the students to use GeoGebra software to determine the model that represents the trajectory of the water. In this example, firstly the students chose the origin of the Cartesian coordinate system such that it coincided with the starting point of the water. The students predicted the shape of the motion (quadratic function) and created new value of parameter m using the slider of the ÂŠ 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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software. Secondly, they typed the equation of the quadratic function in the form y = mx2 in the input field. Thirdly, they moved the point on the slider (the parameter m) until the graph of the quadratic function overlapping the trajectory of the water. Finally, the students wrote down the found quadratic equation. Through these activities, the students could see the moving path of the water is a parabola that has the equation y = 0.1x2. As a result, they get more understanding about some kinds of motions such as water spouting out from a high location or the falling of a ball. Parabolas also represented some types of building such as an arch bridge, the motion of some planets around the sun, etc.

Figure 2: Modelling the trajectory of the water from Merlion using GeoGebra Example 2. The number of human population was calculated by the formula S = AerN, where A is the population of the starting year, S is the population after N years, r is the annual population growth rate of the year. We know that in the year 2001, the population in Vietnam was S = 78.685.800 and the growth rate was r = 1.7% in that year. When will the population of Vietnam reach the number of 100 million people if the growth rate does not change? This modelling task was used to help the students get more understanding about the applications of exponential growth in real life. In lower grades, students were taught about linear and quadratic growth. The purpose of this example is to provide the students with an insight into the distinction among graphs of linear, quadratic and exponential functions that are representing growth rates. In this problem, the students could realize that at the beginning stage of time the graphâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s linear and exponential functions are nearly similar. In other words, there is no difference between linear and exponential models. Nevertheless, at the later stage of time (after 10 years), there is an enormous dissimilarity between the graph of linear and exponential function.

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Figure 3: Modelling exponential growth of Vietnamese population Stage 1 (Real world problem): The problem was stated very explicitly with the mathematical model S = AerN. As a result, students did not need to collect data of population in some years in order to formulate a model. However, the students understood that this problem is very close to their real life. Stage 2 (Make assumptions): Based upon the model, some students made conjectures about the growth of population by drawing a graph of the exponential function. They knew that the number of populations would increase very quickly and reach the number of 100 million in a short time. Stage 3 (Formulate mathematical problem): Most of students could write the exponential equation with one variable N: 78685800. e0.017N = 100000000. The problem now is to solve the equation to find the value of N. Stage 4 (Solve the mathematical problem): By solving the equation, the students found that N ď&#x201A;ť 14. The solution was presented as follows:

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Stage 5 (Interpret the solution): From the result N = 14, the students derived that the Vietnamese population will reach the number of 100 million in 2015. Most of students could get this answer but there were some students who did not comment more about the final result and compare the result with the real data about the population. Stage 6 (Verify the model): There were only some students who showed a good connection between the solution and the real situation. They said that the initial model was not suitable: â&#x20AC;&#x2022;The population in Vietnam in 2015 is about 90 million people. This number was not equal to the result of the calculated model. This error stems from growth rate ... In fact, growth rate also depends upon variety of factors such as immigration and emigration rate, war, population policy, etc. However, I can realize that the population policies in Vietnam were implemented successfully in the past decade....â&#x20AC;&#x2013;. It means that some students were able to verify the accuracy of the model in the real situation and realized that it is necessary to revise the model of exponential function. Stage 7 (Report, explain, predict): Some students explained the difference between the solution and real life data because of the changing growth rate in every year. They predicted that this rate will be decreased in the next few years and then warned about some disadvantages of this falling trend to the state of national economics. To sum up, modelling approaches provide students with a learning environment where they are invited to investigate, by means of mathematics, situations arising in other areas of knowledge. In particular, by designing mathematical models, the teachers can integrate the knowledge of mathematics in tackling important social issues such as population rate growth, environment protection, climate change, disease spread, etc. Collecting the Data In sum 180 students from different high schools participated in this research. Students were asked to work with some real-life modelling problems with restricted teacher support. Teachers gave only strategic interventions by using some kinds of requests like: Make a sketch or diagram; Which data do you need? Which information do you need to collect? What does this model describe in the real life? The teachers have designed supporting questions so that the students could solve the problem based upon seven steps of the modelling cycle. We divided each class into different groups and allowed them to discuss the problems with a system of focusing questions from the teachers. After school each group continued to solve other similar problems (normally project-based work) ÂŠ 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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independently with the assistance of prospective teachers from a faculty of education. The groups also were allowed to choose an interest project topic to investigate by means of mathematics. It took several days, weeks or even months to complete are modelling projects. Data were collected through audio-recordings of group discussion and then were transcribed. Students’ written protocols were also analyzed based on the seven-step modelling process. Finally, we conducted a semi-interview individually after each test aimed at getting more information about students’ thinking and strategies during the process of solving the modelling problems. Teachers’ took notes which were also used to record the students’ difficulties during modelling process.

RESULTS All 180 students participated in the all tests which include modelling problems and the results have shown that only 34% out of all of the students created correct mathematical models. In particular, 49% of the participants created incorrect models or solved the problem wrongly. The rest of them did not deal with it at all or were not able to create any mathematical model. They have met difficulties in transiting from real world problems into mathematics problems and finding a suitable model for the situation. We also realized that during every phase in the modelling process, the students had potential cognitive barriers. For example, in step 1, many students get stuck in interpreting the real life problem, translating into mathematical problem and building a suitable model. By interviewing, we realized that the students’ difficulties stem from their lack of life experiences, especially students who lived in rural and mountainous areas. In step 2, the students were afraid of making assumptions by themselves; consequently they had difficulties in simplifying, structuring, and mathematising the problem. In particular, most of the students did not present any comments about validating the created model in real life. Through the interview, 61% of students said that they have learned brilliant strategies through the activities in which mathematics is currently being applied outside the classroom although 22% of them believed that the activities were boring and 6% said that mathematical modelling is very time-consuming because they have not encountered such a problem before. Until students are accustomed to this type of problem, they would not take the time to complete all seven steps in the modelling process. By analyzing students’ written protocols, we have concluded that the modelling process is not linear and also not cyclic because the students can jump between the different stages in an unsystematic manner. In other words, it can be said that students’ individual modelling tracks depended upon their individual preferences or problem solving strategies. © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Through the interview, most of the teachers said that they met great difficulty in managing the classroom using a modelling teaching method, and the teachers have actually changed their role in the classroom from instructors to guiders and advisors. The teachers have also confirmed that a modelling activity should be based on an open, complex, realistic problem/situation. It should challenge the students’ curiosity, encourage a deeper understanding of important mathematical ideas, and enhance individual thinking as well as group discussion. As a result, this approach develops the ability of inductive and deductive students’ thinking and competencies like problems solving, formulating and testing of conjectures, revealing of causal relations and connections between related features. Teachers’ skill of applying information and communication technologies in teaching mathematics (e.g., simulation, graphing, data analyses, etc.) was also a technical barrier in representing the modelling process. Finally, the teachers argued that they did not often use this method in teaching mathematics because they did not have any kind of book guide about this issue at all and they also were not able to realize modelling problems from real life situations.

DISCUSSIONS In general, we have revealed that some barriers in applying this modelling method in the classroom linked to teachers’ teaching styles, beliefs and teaching skills. Most teachers in Vietnam have little or no experience in mathematical modelling. They met difficulties in selecting and designing tasks that are open-ended, realistic and competency-based. They did not use this approach often because the modelling activity normally has time constraints in comparison to a traditional approach. It was also not easy to show students what to do and then guide them through practice. In particular, modelling requires the teachers to prepare a careful lesson plan and design a system of questions aimed to evaluating the students’ model. All of the teachers agreed that this modelling approach would provide an opportunity for students to understand about the developing process of the mathematical concepts. By working with modelling tasks, the students could develop their mathematical skills, deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and make a connection between mathematics and other areas, especially ―very near to reality‖ situations that allowed interdisciplinary insights. The main difficulty with implementation of modelling in the curricula is that most of teachers are lacking experience of modelling both at the secondary school and at the teacher training university.

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CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, this modelling approach would provide students with a potential opportunity to connect mathematics knowledge in the classroom to their real life, school and society. The teachers should allow the students to analyze realistic situations, formulate and test the conjectures, choose and use appropriate mathematics tools and methods, build and interpret the mathematical model, reflect to real life and then to adjust their thinking. As a result, the students would utilize the created model to interpret the real world phenomena, make conjecture, produce arguments, and forecast about situations in the future. Therefore, we could consider mathematical modelling in the classroom as an active learning method and the students could learn mathematics in a meaningful way if this model was applied universally. The following conclusions can be drawn from empirical findings that small group work on modelling problems may provide opportunities to introduce mathematical modelling and control studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; activities in the classroom. However, the teachers must offer their students suggestions and private supports during the modelling process by giving the students proper guidance and scaffolding questions. In particular, the teachers need to design lessons that use both skill standards and modelling process practices. We also found that it takes a long time from empirical research to application in the classroom. Hence, the role of the modelling approach and its feasibility is an on-going discussion in the mathematics classroom. The results of this research also would make a contribution to modernizing the mathematics curricula and textbooks in Vietnam in which mathematical modelling as well as problem solving will be considered as studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; core competencies.

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Niss, M., Blum, W. & Galbraith, P. (2007). Introduction. In W. Blum, P. Galbraith, H. Henn and M. Niss (Eds.), Modelling and applications in mathematics education, the 14th ICMI study (pp. 3-32). New York: Springer. Nguyen, D. N., Tran, T. (2013). Recommendations for mathematics curriculum development in Vietnam. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Educational Reform, pp. 26-32. Swetz, F. and Hartzler, J. S. (1991). Mathematical modelling in the secondary school curriculum. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: Reston, Virginia. Zawojewski, J. S, Lesh, R., & English, L. D. (2003). A models and modelling perspective on the role of small group learning. In R. A. Lesh & H. Doerr (Eds.), Beyond constructivism: A models and modelling perspective on teaching, learning, and problem solving in mathematics education (pp. 337-358). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Zhu, K., Li, W., and Fu, X. (2013). Modeling population growth in online social networks. Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling, pp. 01-14. Informations of the Author: Nguyen Danh Nam, Ph.D Thai Nguyen University of Education 20, Luong Ngoc Quyen Street, Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam E-mail: danhnam.nguyen@dhsptn.edu.vn

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 127-144, May 2016

Negotiating Accountability and Integrated Curriculum from a Global Perspective Susan M. Drake and Michael J. Savage Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

Abstract. In an age of educational accountability there is tension between the pressure for success in large-scale testing and the need to develop students 21st century competencies such as communication and creative problem solving to prepare them for the complex global world. Integrated curriculum is a popular way to develop these skills yet it is often dismissed because of accountability issues. This article explores the policy directions of several educational jurisdictions around the world to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between the two positions. The analysis concludes that integrated curriculum approaches do not seem to have a negative impact on large-scale testing scores. Keywords: Integrated curriculum; accountability; educational policy; standardized testing; 21st century competencies Acknowledgements: This research was supported by a grant from the International Baccalaureate Organization.

Introduction The tension between the need for accountability and the need to create an educational system that works in the 21st Century permeates educational jurisdictions around the world. Curriculum integration is often seen as a way to effectively approach 21st century learning. The thinking seems to be, however, that in order to do better on accountability measures there is no room for integrated approaches. For example, there was a strong interest in curriculum integration in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United States and Canada but the push toward standardization and large-scale testing, methods designed to increase accountability, muted that interest (March & Willis, 2007). In contrast, since 2000, the jurisdictions in East Asia have been attracted to integration as a means of developing generic skills, expanding international awareness and preparing students for a global economy (Lam, Alviar-Martin, Adler, & Sim, 2013). Yet, the stereotype of East Asian countries is that the students study endlessly in a highly competitive, ruthless, examdriven environment to obtain the top spots at the next level of schooling. ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Although there are many ways to define accountability, from a teacher‟s personal sense of responsibility to system accountability, the concept has generally come to mean the effectiveness of educational jurisdictions as measured through large-scale testing (Figlio & Loeb, 2011). Recently this definition of accountability has shifted from a local context to a globalized one that is rooted in an economic rationale. Success is determined by measuring students on international tests with context-free specific needs and competencies; much of contemporary reform is based on this rationale intended to further the global economic agenda (Mayer, Trohler, Labaree, & Hutt, 2014). Organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have played a central role in this shift with its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests having a farreaching impact as educational policy is strongly influenced by results on these tests. Although there are other significant international tests and some dissension around OECD as the arbitrator of educational excellence (Meyer, 2014), we use PISA tests as the marker of the most successful educational systems in the world. Why are educators reluctant to consider integrated or interdisciplinary curriculum? Unfortunately, part of the reason is that definitions of integrated curriculum can be confusing – ranging from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). Here we interpret integrated curriculum to mean when two or more subject areas are connected in some way. The research on the effectiveness of such approaches has been largely anecdotal (Applebee et al., 2007; Czerniak, 1999) or worse, have designs that are flawed (Brewer, 2002; Pang & Good, 2000). There is, however, some strong new empirical research emerging to support such approaches that cut across subject areas such as project-based learning, socio-emotional learning and artsbased learning (see, for example, Vega, 2013). Nevertheless, integrated curriculum seems like a perfect fit for developing generic 21st Century competencies such as collaboration, creativity, communication, character education, civic literacy and critical thinking (see, for example, Brooks & Holmes, 2014; Fullan, 2013; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012). More importantly, students are more engaged in school when they are learning in an interdisciplinary environment (Hinde, 2005; Holm, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to explore whether students can succeed at largescale testing and also learn through an integrated curriculum. Are accountability measures and curriculum integration incompatible? Or can students do well in large-scale tests and also learn through integrated approaches? The significance is that educators may consider integrated approaches to teaching and learning that will engage students, facilitate learning the 21st Century competencies and will also lead to success on largescale tests. This paper examines the relationship between curriculum policy on integrated learning and countries that consistently do well on international accountability measures – specifically PISA. The „hypothesis‟ being that if countries that do well on PISA also include integrated learning, then this should be an endorsement for integrated learning. Although it is obviously © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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simplistic to consider testing as the only measure of the success of an education system, we explore here how jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Korea, and Japan, all countries that repeatedly top the OECD charts, are balancing accountability with curriculum integration. We then look at Finland, the province of Quebec in Canada, and the International Baccalaureate schools, all of which are known for their commitment to integrated approaches to learning. This is followed by a brief discussion of educational policy in the United States and Ontario, Canada in the hope of gaining a deeper understanding of the issue.

Method This paper is a conceptual analysis of curriculum policies in several educational jurisdictions as exemplified in their published curriculum documents available on the internet. It includes appropriate literature and correspondence with knowledgeable individuals in these jurisdictions to help deepen understanding of what these policies look like in practice. As well, figures have been added that are adaptations of key graphics describing curriculum policy. Our organizing lens has been to look at curriculum policy to see if there is a unifying framework with goals that cut across subject areas or if the curriculum is presented in subject-specific silos. Our deductive categorization of integrated curriculum is rooted in what students are required to know (disciplinary or interdisciplinary content, facts or big ideas), do (low level skills or 21st century competencies) and be (discipline specific values, attitudes and behaviors or interdisciplinary values, attitudes and behaviors; Drake et al., 2014). We also examine educational policy in each jurisdiction that incorporates integrated approaches.

Analysis Publicly available curriculum documents from several educational jurisdictions from around the world are analysed below. The analysis focuses on the presence, or absence, of integrative curriculum approaches in the curriculum documents. Policy documents that explicitly mention or mandate integrated approaches are also mentioned where appropriate. 1. East Asia Educational jurisdictions in East Asia are examined first due to their success on the OECD tests. 1.1 China. China as represented by Shanghai and Hong Kong has continually topped the charts in international testing. Indeed, in 2015, OECD education director Andreas Schleicher commented that Shanghai pupilsâ&#x20AC;&#x; performance in the basic skills is now so good that it is beyond comparison with any other country (Garner, 2015). It is important to note that these two cities, while useful to examine, are not necessarily representative of all parts of such a diverse country. Indeed, Shanghai and Hong Kong are both different in their approaches given their very different histories. In both metropolises there is a forward thinking mindset with â&#x20AC;&#x153;a clear ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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awareness that education needs to transform to keep pace with the rate of change in society – and not just current change, but a conscious effort has been made to take into account the future of society, the economy, and education” (Singmaster, n.d.). A brief look at their policies sheds some light on integrated approaches. Hong Kong offered a unifying framework K to 12 that called for integration in 2001. “Both integrated learning experiences and discipline-based studies are valuable for students. Therefore, students should be given opportunities to study both” (Curriculum Development Council Hong Kong, 2001, p.26). This framework is presented as a graphic in Figure 1. In 2001, The Key Learning Areas (KLA) replaced subject areas. PSHE refers to Personal, Social and Humanities Education. Cutting across those key areas are generic skills. Hong Kong explicitly states that values and attitudes also cut across all subject areas.

Figure 1: Hong Kong Unifying Framework (Adapted from CDC, Hong Kong, 2001) [English Version]

The essence of this unifying framework is still evident in the 2014 document that has been released for primary grades (CDC Hong Kong, 2014). Today, there are seven interdisciplinary learning goals that cut across key learning areas and act as an umbrella (see Figure 2). Embedded in the seven learning goals are generic skills, values and attitudes.

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Figure 2: Key Learning Goals (Adapted from CDC, Hong Kong, 2014)

Three Cross-Key Learning Areas offer opportunities to learn the generic skills. The Cross-Key Learning Areas are 1) general studies for primary, 2) liberal studies for senior secondary levels and 3) applied learning (CDC Hong Kong, 2014). For example, about 15% of a student‟s time is spent in the general studies of the primary program. Here students integrate across all subject areas what they know and can do with their values and attitudes. A goal is for students to be able to demonstrate critical and creative thinking, information management, numeracy and self-management. Liberal studies (for senior secondary students) is a timetabled class with broad topics and no syllabus. The assessment is flexible. Students take charge of their own learning and use sources outside of textbooks for information. Liberal studies is considered for university entrance along with Chinese, English and mathematics. Students “develop high-order or critical thinking. This includes asking sensible questions; finding directions for analysis, synthesis and conceptualization; and proposing hypotheses or theories” (OECD, 2015, p. 103). This curriculum design sets a good example for grounding curriculum in student-directed learning. Teachers are encouraged to plan collaboratively, use technology to enhance learning and to implement hands-on learning, projectbased approaches (CDC Hong Kong, 2014). How do teachers approach teaching within this unifying framework? Four key tasks are identified in the curriculum. Moral and Civic Education is the core task that interconnects the other three tasks which include Interactive Technology, Reading to Learn and Project Learning (CDC Hong Kong, 2014). The intent of the Project Learning is be cross-curricular although teachers can choose how they wish to implement it. Project Learning in schools is a key element of the curriculum platform. In 2014 Shanghai was the largest city in China with a population of over 24 million people. It has a different education system than Hong Kong and the rest © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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of China. In 1985 they shifted from an exam-based culture that focused on multiple-choice tests to one that emphasized applied knowledge and skills. It is the first Chinese city to achieve 100% enrolment in both primary and junior high school. This includes 6 million students from the migrant worker population. Additionally, all students in Shanghai have access to postsecondary education. In spite of this, exams still exist and students study long hours beyond the school day, often in cram schools. The reform, however, is still ongoing. An OECD article describes the Shanghai landscape in 2010 (OECD 2010a). In 2008, to move away from examinations and memorization, all schools implemented eight learning domains which included areas previously marginalized such as arts and physical education. Schools were required to locally develop their curriculum. Students were able to take elective courses. Inquiry-based education was emphasized. As well, students could do independent courses where they explored research topics of personal interest. This innovation was intended to increase social well-being, critical and creative problem solving, and metacognition. Teacher education and professional development shifted to accommodate this new vision. Shifts in pedagogy also were implemented. Popular slogans were “return class time to students” and “for every question there should be more than one answer”. Teachers would not lecture as often and were no longer the sole authority; they were encouraged to allow class time for student activities and not just have presentations and lectures. 1.2 Singapore. The progressive policies in Singapore can lead to different models of integration (Lam et al., 2013). Singapore offers a framework that illustrates the relationship of 21st Century competencies and student outcomes (See Figure 3).

Figure 3: Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes (Adapted from Ministry of Education Singapore, n.d.a)

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The inner circle represents core values that underpin knowledge and skills and shape beliefs, attitudes and actions. The middles ring revolves around Social and Emotional Competencies. The outer ring represents the 21st Century competencies. Presumably all content knowledge is embedded in this framework. The Ministry of Education offers key outcomes for students at the end of school (See Table 1). Table 1: Key Outcomes for Education (Adapted from Ministry of Education Singapore, n.d.b) The key stage outcomes of education At the end of Primary students will be able to

At the end of secondary school students will be able to

At the end of postsecondary school students will be able to

Distinguish right from wrong

Demonstrate moral integrity

Display moral courage and stand up for what is right

Identify their strengths and areas for growth

Believe in their abilities and adapt to change

Be resilient in the face of adversity

Cooperate, share and care for others

Work in teams and show empathy

Collaborate across cultures and be socially responsible

Display lively curiosity

Be creative and demonstrate an inquiring mind

Be enterprising and innovative

Think and express themselves confidently

Appreciate diverse views and communicate effectively

Think critically and communicate persuasively

Take pride in their work

Take responsibility for their own learning

Pursue excellence purposefully

Demonstrate healthy habits and awareness of the arts

Enjoy physical activities and appreciate the arts

Live a healthy lifestyle and have aesthetic appreciation

Know and love Singapore

Believe in Singapore and know what is important for the country

Be a proud Singaporean who is aware of Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x;s position in the world.

Singapore has also developed courses that seem to lend themselves to an integrated approach. All secondary schools need to develop two new learning programs to complement their academic and student development by 2017 (Ministry of Education Singapore, n.d.b). These courses can revolve around student interests. A description follows: The Applied Learning programme will serve to connect academic knowledge and skills with the real world. The emphasis is on the application of thinking skills, connecting knowledge across subject disciplines, stretching the imagination and applying these in authentic ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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settings in society and industries. The intent is to help students appreciate the relevance and value of what they are learning in the academic curriculum and develop stronger motivation and purpose to acquire knowledge and skills. The Applied Learning programme may be developed in areas such as business and entrepreneurship, design, engineering and robotics, environmental science and technology, health services, heritage, journalism and broadcasting, literary arts, simulation and modelling. The Learning for Life programme will provide students with real-life experiential learning to develop their character and values, cultivate positive attitudes, self-expression and strengthen their people skills. This will be an integral aspect and a distinctive signature approach of Character and Citizenship Education (CCE). The intent is to instil in our students a sense of rootedness and responsibility for their community and fellow Singaporeans. Areas can include, among others, outdoor adventure learning, sports, student leadership development, uniformed groups, performing and visual arts. (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2013, p. 7). Through the adoption of the Learning for Life and Applied Learning programs Singapore is committing itself to developing integrated curriculum that has authentic connections to the world outside of the schools. The Ministry of Education in Singapore hopes these initiatives will not only strengthen students‟ academic skills but also help develop their students‟ character, attitude, and selfexpression skills in addition to strengthening their ties to their communities. 1.3 Korea. Korea has been interested in an integrated approach for many years. The Ministry supports increasing autonomy – curricula can be designed locally to fit the environment. Twenty-five percent of elementary, middle and secondary schools are connected to the creative management school program that promotes creativity and character education. The Ministry website features a nod to STEAM which is the integration of science, math, engineering, arts and technology (Ministry of Education Republic of Korea, n.d.) Kwangsoon Jeong, a professor at the Korean National University of Education in personal communication (May 27, 2015) summarizes recent changes being made to the Korean curriculum. According to her: We are working on revision of the national curriculum called 2015 revised curriculum. General competency and subject-specific competency will be included in the achievement standards. In elementary school, integrated subjects for the 1st and 2nd graders provided in the 2009 revised curriculum will be maintained in the 2015 version. Students study core subjects of Korean language arts, mathematics, ethics, wise living and pleasant living. There is time for independent activity and special activities. This policy lends itself to an integrated approach. Students in higher primary grades go to school longer and study core traditional subjects, but there is still time for independent and special activities. The basic instruction is supposed to instil in the students basic © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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life habits, problem-solving abilities, a love for the country and an appreciation of culture and tradition (http://www.ncee.org/programsaffiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/topperforming-countries/south-korea-overview/south-korea-instructionalsystems/ ). In middle school, which is three years in length, a “free semester system” is being implemented. The free semester is similar to the “Transitional Year'” in Ireland. During one semester in the 2nd grade of junior high school, students will be study in 'general' subjects, such as Korean, English, math in the morning. In the afternoon, they will participate in club activities and career education. Given the reduction time for 'general subjects' and some recognition of advantages of this reduction, curriculum integration - especially interdisciplinary approaches – are starting to be implemented in junior high schools. In high school, there will be common core subjects, such as integrated social study, and integrated science study curriculum. Integrated social study includes history, economics, and geography and integrated science study includes physics, chemistry, earth science and biology. The slogan of the 2015 revised curriculum is “integrated curriculum of social and natural science.” The main purpose is for students to develop the basic competencies of humanistic imagination and scientific creativity. 1.4 Japan. In Japan, the education reform called “Zest for Living” was passed in the Fundamental Education Law in 2006. This reform institutionalized the Period for Integrated Studies that had been introduced in 2000 and implemented into all elementary schools in 2002. The aim of this course was to foster independent work and to increase creativity and problem solving abilities. Teachers had the autonomy to develop the course with the local context and students‟ interests in mind. Experiential learning was encouraged in nature, social life, field study, experiments, observations, field studies and observation. Issues to be explored were not discipline-based but were concepts such as environment, health and welfare and issues relevant to students. MacDonald (2006) investigated the impact of integrated courses in Japan from the perspective of diversity. He discovered three different approaches to diversity. One approach was to study human rights where the goal of the teacher was to increase students‟ self-esteem, to strengthen their ability to deal with bullying and interpersonal aggression and to teach students about the rights of widely-defined minority groups (e.g. the homeless, the physically disabled population, etc.). A second approach was to look at cultural coexistence. The third approach was international education. MacDonald claims that students increased self-esteem, respect for the thought and feelings of others, learned attitudes of tolerance for others and could take a global perspective of themselves as global citizens and the responsibilities that entailed. Still Japan is not immune to the accountability culture and concerns related to international testing (MacDonald, 2006). In 2011, the government increased the hours in subject-based curriculum and reduced the number in integrated © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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studies. Although there has been tension around the integrated studies programme, Japan has held on to its top rankings in the OECD tests. Inquiry-based learning and project learning still exist in Japan, and overlap with integrated studies (personal correspondence, Yoshiharu Nakagawa, June 17, 2015). Inquiry is used in high school science. There are Super Science High Schools that are selected for advanced science studies. For example, Horikawa Senior Science School in Kyoto has Basic Inquiry and Integrated Inquiry. These sessions are done in association with Integrated Studies. In 2020 the government will include policy on active learning. Interestingly all of these East Asian systems have the capacity to deliver an integrated curriculum at the national level. Singapore and Hong Kong offer a conceptual framework that clearly illustrates that generic skills and values are to be taught across all subject areas at every grade level. This is what is most important to know, be able to do and be. Singapore, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong also have general courses that specifically target skills and attitudes/values rather than a specific subject area. They also all do well on the OECD literacy, numeracy and science tests. One might argue that it is the “hard work and no play” ethic in the East Asian countries that accounts for their success. But the stereotype does not always fit. A 2010 OECD report (OECD, 2010b) describes the Japanese education culture. Education is highly valued and there are high expectations of all students. All students can succeed and success is determined by hard work and not by innate intelligence. A classroom holds between 35 to 45 students and all classrooms are heterogeneous. No student is held back and students are not differentiated by ability groupings. Instead, the Japanese teacher focuses on engaging the students. Teachers thoughtfully plan their lessosns and often begin with a problem that students help to solve. Mistakes are valued and learned from. The Japanese classroom can be noisy and seemingly unruly at times. Although Japanese students spend a long day in school, they have frequent breaks. Indeed, from our perspective, the OECD description seems like an ideal constructivist classroom anywhere in the world. Going beyond the obstacles of standardized testing, Finland, Quebec, Canada and the IB schools offer instructive examples for a global perspective on curriculum integration. 2. Finland Finland has also done remarkably well in OECD testing, making it a focus of interest for other jurisdictions. How does Finland do it? Hancock (2011) reports for the Smithsonian Magazine that education is highly valued and teachers have a Masters degree and are respected and admired on an equal status with doctors and lawyers. Their attitudes are “whatever it takes” to help all students succeed. They prepare students how to learn rather than to take tests. There is no sorting into ability groups. Finland does not participate in large-scale national testing, although students do take one exit exam to determine their next step. There is © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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little homework and students spend a lot of time learning outside of class. Teachers value play as learning. The national curriculum has broad guidelines rather than a multitude of standards. There are lots of special education teachers who will help students in need. Almost all students enter Grade 9, even the most severely disabled ones. Contrary to stereotypes, Finland is not a homogeneous population but has many immigrants from Iraq, Russia, Somalia, Estonia and Ethiopia among other nations. In 2015, Finland announced a new policy for 2016 implementation (Finnish National Board of Education, n.d.). Initial headlines announced that Finland had abandoned subject areas but in reality it had only reduced the time spent studying them explicitly. Key pieces in Finland‟s reform include the following:  emphasis on seven generic competencies that cut across subject areas  inclusion of the seven competencies in learning objectives in subject areas  assessment of competencies in the subject areas  multi-disciplinary, phenomenon- and project-based studies (at least one a year)  topics that reflect student interest  a collaborative atmosphere, student autonomy, joy of learning, school as a learning community.  teacher autonomy to decide how to implement this new vision (Halinen, 2015) Halinen (2015) claims that teachers can immediately implement this new curriculum as they already have the basics of it in place. 3. Quebec, Canada Quebec, Canada has its own policy of education since there is no national policy of education in Canada. Today in every province except Quebec, most curriculum documents encourage some form of integration but there is not a specific policy around this (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). The policy in Quebec, on the other hand, favours integrated curriculum explicitly. The philosophy undergirding this curriculum is constructivist. The learning is to be active, hands-on, connected to the real world, with an emphasis on collaborative learning. There is a well-thought out unifying framework that is applicable to both primary and secondary schools (and to both French speaking and English speaking schools). These broad areas of learning together with cross-curricular competencies are the frame of reference for educational activities K to 12. The broad areas that cut across subject areas are Health and Well-Being, Personal and Career Planning, Environmental Awareness and Consumer Rights and Responsibilities, Media Literacy and Citizenship and Community Life (Quebec Ministere de l‟Education, 2004). The competencies are complex, broad-based and progressive in nature. Nine cross-curricular competencies are organized into 4 categories: © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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   

Intellectual: Uses information, solves problems, exercise critical judgement, uses creativity Methodological: Adopts effective work methods, uses information and communications technology Personal and Social: Achieves potential, cooperates with others. Communications: Communicates appropriately (Quebec Ministere de l‟Education, 2004)

The five subject areas (languages, math, science and technology, social sciences, arts education and personal development) are each accompanied with a chart that shows how the different subjects within the subject areas connect (Quebec Ministere de l‟Education, 2004). As well, there is 25% of the time for teachers to develop course material that is local in nature and connects to student interests (shades of the East Asian countries). Each competency is richly defined and examples are given for what it looks like developmentally and suggestions are offered for how to assess it. In secondary school, students are required to complete a final integrating project. From an accountability standpoint, there are provincial examinations in French, English, physical science and history twice in secondary education. Students must pass both English and French to graduate. Provincial examinations account for 50% of the students‟ final grade (Volante, 2007). Over the years, participating provinces in Canada have done well in PISA testing. In 2012, Quebec‟s math scores ranked just below the highest-ranking East Asian countries and above the other Canadian provinces whose scores fell (except Saskatchewan who maintained its ranking). In reading, Canadians did well including Quebec. Only in science was Quebec struggling somewhat. In a Pan Canadian assessment program of 32,000 Grade 8 students, Quebec students were number one in math, fell in the mid-range for science and were second in language (Hammer & Alphonso, 2014). In explaining why Quebec did so well in math, researchers say it is because of intensive teacher training in math and a curriculum that balances both drills and problem solving (Hammer & Alphonso, 2014). But little has been said about whether this province did so well because of an integrated approach to curriculum. 4. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools The IB schools offer an interesting insight into integrated learning. More than 4000 schools around the world have chosen to embrace this model of education for students aged three to 19. These schools are located in different jurisdictions and often need to honour the standards and expectations of the country they are in while following the IB framework. Thus, curriculum design can become a complicated process that seems to be clarified by the framework itself. The IB is a unique approach focusing on academic rigour, well-trained teachers and motivated students (International Baccalaureate Organization [IBO], 2014). © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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These schools are interested in developing “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect” (IBO, 2009). IB schools may be public or private, but are guided by the same unifying framework. That framework includes integrated approaches to learning – especially at the primary level where transdisciplinary learning is policy. The IB Learner Profile cuts across all subject areas at all grades. This profile embodies the kind of person the IB student should be. Generic skills also cut across subject areas: thinking, social, communication, self-management and research skills are emphasized. As well, attitudes such as appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, and creativity are considered essential. This framework of skills and values cutting across disciplines at all grade levels is similar to the Hong Kong, Singapore and Quebec frameworks. The IB programmes go one step further and focus on conceptual learning in content areas. Students learn transdisciplinary concepts and central ideas that go beyond the scope of the disciplines and reflect the real world. Finally, the schools are concerned with action. In the PYP, for example, “successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the student as a result of the learning process” (IBO, 2009, p.25). This action can be service learning and can occur both in and outside of school. In this way the student demonstrates the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Various studies indicate that IB students perform very well academically in relation to non-IB students. A study undertaken by Tan and Bibby (2010) compared the performance on the International Schools‟ Assessment (ISA) of 23,575 IB students to 14,317 non-IB students across the world. The study found that generally, IB students performed better than their non-IB peers on the ISA in terms of numeracy and traditional literacy at most grade levels. In a follow-up study, Tan and Bibby‟s analysis (2012) of IB students‟ performance on the ISA came up with similar results. In a case study set in Texas, USA (Sillisano et al., 2010), 43 IB schools were matched to non-IB schools in order to compare performance on standardized state reading and math tests. The study concluded that IB schools performed as well as their comparison schools on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam 5. Further examples for a global perspective Two aspects stand out in jurisdictions that were successful in OECD testing and the IB schools. One aspect is the presence of a unifying framework. Interdisciplinary outcomes/competencies that are skill and value-based cut across the content areas and are made explicit. The second aspect is that time is specifically allocated for locally-based curriculum; the content of this curriculum is left to the discretion of the teacher and is intended to connect to students‟ interests. In some countries this time is designated to work toward developing students‟ generic competencies. These common factors seem to be success factors. We wonder how essential these factors are to the successful negotiation of accountability and integrated approaches. We look at Ontario © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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and United States for further illumination. 5.1 United States. In contrast to the systems already presented, the United States has not excelled in the international tests consistently, falling midway in the ranks most years. The United States recently adopted a Common Core State Standards (CCSS) curriculum in 43 states and 4 territories (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2016). This adoption has not been without controversy and there are still many issues around interpretation and evaluation. It would be hard to describe the Common Core State Standards as a unifying framework for this large country at this time. It includes only traditional literacy and numeracy learning goals that students should attain by the end of each grade. Some American educators, however, are seeing the promise of literacy across the curriculum and more integrated approaches (see, for example, Drake, 2012). Beginning in grade 6, the Common Core State Standards literacy standards allow teachers of English language arts, technical subjects, science, and history/social studies to use their content area for teaching reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields, which some teachers are experimenting with. Although it is rarely policy, there are many examples of integrated curriculum and project-based learning dotted across the country. Much of the literature on the need for curriculum integration and for teaching 21st Century skills originated in the United States. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.P21.org ) and other organizations like it encourage the same types of generic skills, or 21st Century competencies, as the East Asian countries, Finland and the IB schools described above. 5.2 Ontario, Canada. Ontario is different from the United States. It has done well in OECD testing even though its math scores have fallen in the last PISA testing. Here, there is a long history of government supported integrated approaches that have come in and out of favour (Clausen & Drake, 2010). The latest iteration was in 1993 with The Common Curriculum: Grades 1-9 (Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, 1993a). This working document introduced curriculum integration and out-come based education to the province. It emphasized accountability, equity and excellence for students. The curriculum offered 10 essential learning outcomes across subjects that students needed to master by the end of Grade 9. The curriculum integrated the traditional subjects into four core areas – Language; The Arts; Mathematics, Science, and Technology; and Self and Society. Documents outlined outcomes that students were expected to attain by Grades 3 and 6 in each core area. A more polished version of this curriculum was released two years later (Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, 1995). In looking at this venture in the light of today‟s curriculum, the Common Curriculum had much to commend it and may contain hints for successful policies in 2016 and beyond. The 10 Essential Learning Goals acted as a unifying framework for all subject areas. The goals included a focus on literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy as well as technological, historical and © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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geographic literacy. Students were also to “interact effectively with others, demonstrate respect for human rights and be motivated to fulfil the responsibilities of citizens of in a democratic society” and “exercise aesthetic judgement” and “be motivated to build healthy lifestyles and relationships” (Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, 1993a, p. 11). There were general principles of teaching, learning and assessment – particularly performance assessment. At the same time there was government support for this curriculum implementation. A resource document, Towards an Integrated Curriculum (Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, 1993b) was released alongside the primary curriculum documents. This document offered a continuum for integration perspectives and tried to deal with issues around definition. There was a lot of provincially supported professional development. At this time the EQAO was established– this organization would administer large-scale testing at grade 3, 6, 9 and 10 to determine student success and system accountability. This curriculum was a radical departure from the recent past in Ontario. Unfortunately, just as educators were beginning to understand how to implement this program, the government of the day, the New Democratic Party (NDP), lost to the Conservatives who quickly replaced the policies with traditional ones. Outcomes were gone, replaced by expectations and large-scale testing became mandated. There was no unifying framework and learning was largely discipline-based. Ontario has worked from this premise since this time. One document still remains from the Common Curriculum era and is currently being revised. The Ontario Curriculum Interdisciplinary Grades 11 and 12 (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2002) outlines how to create interdisciplinary courses by combining credits for different subject areas. What subjects to integrate is up to the creativity of the teachers involved. There are many innovative interdisciplinary courses across the province and each one is unique. Some teachers integrate four courses and students spend all day for a semester in that course. What ties the courses together is a set of interdisciplinary expectations that all students must meet. They act as a unifying framework of sorts. The expectations revolve around interdisciplinary foundations, research and evaluation.

Conclusions Admittedly this analysis is brief and a snapshot in time. It is difficult, if not impossible, to know how policy is being enacted in real classrooms. The culture in these examples is also an important part that we haven‟t explored. The information here belies the myth that a student who succeeds in math, science and language studies must be in a strictly, discipline-based program with rote learning exercises. There is a clear direction/pattern in policy in these successful examples that may be considered: 1) Develop a unifying framework that addresses what is important for students to know, do and be that cuts across all subjects for all © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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grades. This provides a big picture and identifies wat the essential goals of the curriculum are. 2) Provide a period of time that is not subject-based but is devoted to inquiry and building generic skills and cultural values. 3) Consider adopting constructivist philosophy, fewer exams, inquiry learning, project-based learning and integrating subjects to teach 21st Century competencies and generic values and attitudes. After reviewing these curricula it seems safe to conjecture that students who excel in math, language and science in OECD testing are not effected negatively by ventures into integrated programming. In fact, one might surmise that they do better because of these programs. References Applebee, A. N., Adler, A., & Filan, S. (2007). Interdisciplinary curricula in middle and high school classrooms: Case studies of approaches to curriculum and instruction. American Educational Research Journal, 44, 1002-1039. doi: 10.3102/0002831207308219 Brewer, T. (2002). Integrated curriculum: What benefit? Arts Education Policy Review, 103, 31-36. Brooks, M. & Holmes, B. (2014). Equinox Blueprint for Learning 2030. Waterloo, ON: University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. http://www.wgsi.org/sites/wgsilive.pi.local/files/Learning%202030%20Equinox%20Blueprint.pdf Clausen, K. & Drake, S. M. (2010). Interdisciplinary practices in Ontario: Past, present and future. Issues in Integrative Studies, 28, 69-108. Common Core State Standards Initiative (2016). About the Standards. Retrieved from: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/ Curriculum Development Council Hong Kong (2001). Learning to learn: The way forward in curriculum development. Hong Kong: Government Printer. Curriculum Development Council Hong Kong (2014) Basic Education Curriculum Guide – To sustain, deepen and focus on learning to learn (P1 – P6). Retrieved from: https://cd.edb.gov.hk/becg/chapter1.html#s1.2 Czerniak, C. (2009). A literature review of science and mathematics integration. School Science and Mathematics, 99, 421-433. Drake, S. M. (2012). Creating Standards-based integrated curriculum: Common Core State Standards Edition (3nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills: Oxford University Press. Figlio, D., & Loeb, S. (2011). School Accountability. In Eric A. Hanushek, Stephen Machin, and Ludger Woessmann (Eds.)., Handbooks in Economics, Vol. 3 (pp. 383421). The Netherlands: North-Holland Press. Finnish National Board of Education. (n.d.). Basic Education. Retrieved from: http://www.oph.fi/english/curricula_and_qualifications/basic_education Fullan, M. (2013). Great to Excellent: Launching the Next Stage of Ontario’s Education Agenda. Retrieved from: http://www.michaelfullan.ca/media/13599974110.pdf

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/basic-skillsperformance-of-shanghai-pupils-is-beyond-compare-says-oecd-10279676.html Halinen, I. (2015). What is going on in Finland? - Curriculum reform 2016. Finnish National Board of Education. Retrieved from: http://www.oph.fi/english/current_issues/101/0/what_is_going_on_in_finla nd_curriculum_reform_2016 Hammer, K., & Alphonso, C. (2014, October, 7). Tests show provincial differences in math, reading, science education. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: www.theglobeandmail.com Hancock, L. (2011). Why are Finland’s schools successful? Special report: Educating American for the 21st Century. Retrieved from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schoolssuccessful-49859555/?no-ist=&=&=&=&no-cache=&page=1&fb_locale=zh_TW Hargreaves, A. & Shirley, D. (Eds.), (2009). The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Hinde, E. R. (2005). Revisiting curriculum integration: A fresh look at an old idea. Social Studies, 96, 105–111. Holm, M. (2011) Project-based instruction: A review of the literature on the effectiveness of it in Prekindergarten through 12th grade classrooms. Insight: River Academic Journal, 7(2), 1-13. International Baccalaureate Organization. (2009). Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education. Cardiff, Wales: Author. International Baccalaureate Organization. (2014). Key findings from global research on the impact of IB programmes. Cardiff, Wales: Author. Lam, C.C., Alviar-Martin, T., Adler, S.A., Sim, J.B-Y. (2013). Curriculum integration in Singapore: Teachers‟ perspectives and practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 31, 23-34. MacDonald, L. (2006). Curriculum reform as a reflection of tradition and change: Japanese teachers approaches to dimensions of difference via the integrated curriculum. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland. March, C. J. & Willis, G. (2007). Curriculum: Alternative approaches. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Meyer, H-D., (2014). Educational accountability regime: How accountable are the accountants? Teachers College Record, 116(9), 13-33. Meyer, H-D., Trohler, D., Labaree, L. F., & Hutt, E. L. (2014). Accountability: Antecedents, power and processes. Teachers College Record, 116(9), 1-12. Ministry of Education Republic of Korea. (n.d.). Major Tasks. Retrieved from: http://english.moe.go.kr/web/1707/site/contents/en/en_0275.jsp Ministry of Education Singapore. (n.d.a.). 21st Century Competencies. Retrieved from: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/education-system/21st-centurycompetencies Ministry of Education Singapore. (n.d.b). Desired Outcomes of Education. Retrieved from: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/education-system/desired-outcomes-ofeducation Ministry of Education Singapore. (2013). Every secondary school to develop two distinctive programmes for a holistic student-centric education. https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/every-secondary-school-todevelop-two-distinctive-programmes-for-a-holistic-student-centric-education OECD (2010a) Shanghai and Hong Kong: Two distinct examples of education reform in China. OECD Publishing. http://www.oecd.org/countries/hongkongchina/46581016.pdf OECD (2010b). Japan: a story of sustained excellence. Lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD Publishing. © 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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http://www.oecdilibrary.org/education/lessons-from-pisa-for-the-unitedstates/japan-a-story-of-sustained-excellence_9789264096660-7-en OECD (2015). Universal Basic Skills: What countries stand to gain. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/97892642333-en Ontario Ministry of Education (2002). The Ontario Curriculum: Interdisciplinary Studies 11 and 12. Toronto: The Queen‟s Printer for Ontario. Ontario Ministry of Education and Training (1993a). The Common Curriculum Grades 19. Toronto: Queen‟ Printer for Ontario. Ontario Ministry of Education and Training (1993b). Towards an integrated curriculum. Toronto: Queen‟ Printer for Ontario. Ontario Ministry of Education and Training (1995). The Common Curriculum Policies and Outcomes Grades 1-9. Toronto: Publications Ontario. Pang, J., & Good, R. (2000). A review of the integration of science and mathematics: Implications for further research. School Science and Mathematics, 100, 72-82. Quebec Ministere de l‟Education (2004). Chapter 3: Cross-Curricular Competences. In Quebec Ministere de l‟Education, Quebec Education Program. Quebec City, QC: Author. Singmaster, H. (n.d.). Shanghai, The world‟s best school system. Asia Society. http://asiasociety.org/shanghai-worlds-best-school-system Vega, V. (2013). Integrated studies research review. Edutopia. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/integrated-studies-research Volante, L. (2007). An alternative vision for large-scale assessment. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 4(1), 1-14.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 145-155, May 2016

Perceptions of Teacher Counsellors on Assessment of Guidance and Counselling in Secondary Schools Bakadzi Moeti University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana Abstract. The need to examine Guidance and Counselling is very significant in schools. This study sought to solicit for teacher counsellor‟s perceptions on the examination of Guidance and Counselling. The reasons why it should be examined is outlined.Thus, this qualitative study sought to investigate the views of ten teacher counsellors in secondary schools on the examination of Guidance and Counselling. In-depth-interviews were used to collect data from ten teacher counsellors who were purposively selected from various secondary schools in Botswana to take part in the study. The study revealed that 90% teacher counsellors require Guidance and Counselling to be an examinable subject like other subjects. The study concludes that if it can be examined it can improve students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes, students will take the subject seriously and it will also encourage behaviour change among learners. Keywords: Guidance secondary schools

and

Counselling;

assessment;

examining;

Introduction Guidance and Counselling is a specialized field that has a wide array of undertakings and services intended to help people to know themselves, their challenges and the environment around them (Egbochuku, 2008; Oniye& Alawane, 2008). Its introduction in schools was to inculcate accountable behaviour amongst students (Chireshe &Mapfumo, 2005). The same sentiments are echoed by Chireshe (2014) and Gudyanya et al. (2015) who noted that Guidance and Counselling came into existence in schools to help students deal with various problems related to academic, career, social and personal issues as they grow up (Gudyanya et al. 2015), with which if ignored can affect their academic performance. These problems are mostly prevalent when students are in their teenage years normally when they are in high school. Teenage years according to Wotuka (2002) is categorised by extreme developmental changes which commonly cause confusion and restlessness; ultimately leading to unacceptable behaviour (Wotuka, 2002). Mutie and Ndambuki (1999) listed the disturbing behaviours as drug and alcohol abuse, indiscipline as well as engagement in crime related activities. Therefore acknowledging Guidance and © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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Counselling in Education is a very necessary element that every child need as they grow up (Nyamwaka et al., 2013). The importance of Guidance and Counselling in schools has caught attention of several scholars across the worlds who have written extensively on it. Literature confirms the availability of the Guidance and Counselling programs in many countries around the world (Gudyanya et al., 2015; Nyamwaka et al., 2013; Paisley& McMahon, 2001; Maluwa- Banda, 1998). The concept of Guidance and Counselling even though it is a comparatively new issue in the education structures, has found its existence in most countries of Africa (UNESCO, 2001). In Malawi, Guidance services were introduced to deal with personal, social, educational and career problems that young people were facing (MaluwaBanda,1998) . Around the 1980‟s, it was embraced in Zimbabwe (Gudyanya et al., 2015). In Botswana‟s education system its introduction dates back to 1985 when selected secondary school teachers were trained to provide career information to students (Stockton & Bhusumane, 2010; Kandjii-Murangi cited in Abosi and Kandjii-Murangi, 1996; Navin, 1989). However, this arrangement changed over time as a recommendation was made to include other components such as educational, personal and social guidance due to problems faced by the youth at the time as well as HIV pandemic in the country. Consequently, the provision of guidance services in counselling centres, agencies, churches, prisons, nongovernmental organisations was introduced (Wankiri, 1994). At the moment, Guidance and Counselling is taught and timetabled like any other subject to nurture students‟ growth and acquiring of skills that promote problem solving skills (Stockton & Bhusumane, 2010; Ministry of Education, 1996). It is offered as an affectively focused subject as stipulated by the Botswana Ministry of Education while other examinable subjects are cognitively focused (Botswana Government, 1994). Although a lot has been written about Guidance and Counselling, the researcher is not aware of any study on the assessment of Guidance and Counselling. Many researchers have conducted studies on the effectiveness of Guidance and Counselling in different countries. In this study the words examine and assessment will be used interchangeably. Assessment or examination is an important component of the curriculum package. It provides information that is very significant and useful in improving instruction with regard to assessing students‟ ability to learn numerous ideas and use their own experiences in their daily lives. Simply put, assessment is good because it improves both teaching and learning. It creates a platform where feedback will be given (Cross, 1990). In this case, if the students are assessed then they will acquire more knowledge and ultimately this will impact on their overall behaviour change.

Statement of the Problem The researcher has observed that Guidance and Counselling is a very vital programme that was established to help students deal with personal, social, academic and career issues. It is not an examinable subject in Botswana schools. As a result, it may possibly mean that since it is not examinable, students will © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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not take it seriously like other examinable subjects in the school. For example, despite teacher counsellors‟ tireless efforts of teaching the subject there is lack of change of behaviour amongst students. Therefore this study investigated the views of teacher counsellors on the examination of Guidance and Counselling in secondary schools. Literature on the examination or assessment of Guidance and Counselling is very limited as most of the research focused more on Guidance and Counselling generally ( Chireshe, 2014), the need for Guidance and Counselling in schools (Lai-Yeung, 2014 ) , attitudes of headmasters towards Guidance and Counselling (Chireshe & Mapfumo, 2005) and challenges faced in the implementation of Guidance and Counselling in schools ( Shumba et al., 2011). This background signifies that there is a gap to be filled by this study. On the basis of the foregoing, there is need to find out whether examining Guidance and Counselling will have any impact on teachers and student‟s attitudes as well as student‟s overall behaviour change.

Purpose of the Study The study aimed at investigating teacher counsellors‟ views on whether Guidance and Counselling should be assessed in secondary schools.

Objectives of the study The study was guided by the following objectives:  To investigate teacher counsellors perceptions on the assessment of Guidance and Counselling.  To establish the impact that examination of Guidance and Counselling has on students overall behaviour change and both teachers and students attitudes.

Significance of study It is believed that the study will possibly help the school community, students, teachers, school management, policy makers and the Ministry of Education Officers realise the need to examine the Guidance and Counselling subject. Such a move will likely motivate students to realise its importance and hence take it serious like other subjects. The results of its examination can also help enlighten teachers in general to support teacher counsellors as they establish that it is as necessary as any other subject in the school. Furthermore, the findings should add to the limited literature on the subject.

Research Design In this study the Qualitative approach was employed to explore the views of teacher counsellors on the examination of Guidance and Counselling in secondary schools. This approach provided in-depth understanding of the participants‟ views on assessment of Guidance and Counselling. The qualitative research made it possible for the researcher to ask for in-depth descriptions, explanations, narratives, meanings and better understanding of the phenomenon under study (Losido, Spandling & Voegtle, 2006). The use of indepth interviews made it possible for the teacher counsellors to share their views on the examination of Guidance and Counselling.

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Population and Sampling A total of ten teacher counsellors from secondary schools in Botswana were purposively selected to take part in the study. Purposive sampling according to Polit and Beck (2012) is sometimes used when researchers decide to make sample of experts who are best informed about the topic that is being studied. In this case, the teacher counsellors were relevant to share their experiences since they were responsible for teaching and coordinating the Guidance and Counselling department. It also allowed the researcher to gather rich data from the participants. The sample was made up of three male and seven female teachers. The participants were all senior teacher Guidance and Counselling except one who was acting for that position. Only three of them were trained and qualified to teach Guidance and Counselling.

Instrumentation Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The interviews were chosen because they enabled the researcher to probe for more clarity from the participants (Kvale, 1996) about their views concerning the assessment of Guidance and counselling. As such, the researcher was able to understand a phenomenon from the participant point of view (Kvale, 1996). Since semistructured interview questions do not follow a specific layout, it created easiness for the researcher to be able to include other questions raised during the interview. This permitted asking questions to investigate the perceptions of teacher counsellors about assessment of Guidance and Counselling. In addition, the interviews were audio-recorded by use of a tape recorder. This was necessary because it allowed the researcher to get accurate information from what the participants were saying and therefore not waste time taking notes (Wayner, 2005).

Data collection The main data collection process began between the months of June and August 2015. In the interest of the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x; comfort, they indicated the time for the interviews and most of the interviews were done in the Guidance and Counselling office. The duration of the interviews was between 50 minutes and 1 hour 20 minutes. Pseudonyms such as STR1, STR2 and STR3 were used to refer to the participants.

Data Analysis Data collected was transcribed, coded and analysed.

Ethical issues Permission was sought from the School Heads to interview the teacher counsellors. The researcher explained the purpose of the study and sought for informed consent from the participants verbally. Permission to record the interview was also obtained from the participants (Strydom et al., 2005). The participants were also advised that they are free to withdraw any time during the study if they so wish. Confidentiality was emphasised (Du Preez, 2005).

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Perceptions of teacher counsellors on assessment of Guidance and Counselling Majority of the participants expressed their desire for Guidance and Counselling to be examined. They emphasised the need because of the current situation of how Guidance and Counselling is perceived in schools so they felt that maybe if it can be examined it will be embraced like other examinable subjects. They indicated that how people respond to the subject has an impact on the attainment of the desired goals, which are behaviour change and life skills. This is what some participants said „it should be examined because maybe the negative attitudes that teachers and students have about the subject will come to an end’ (STR1, male). „Some subject teachers take it for granted. They think it is waste of time and hence use G&C lesson to cover their material’ (STR4, female). The participants described how the subject should be examined but they had differing views on the implementation part. Some felt that the examination should focus mostly on mastery of life skills through the use of questionnaires. Some highlighted that the habit of awarding certificates to best performers could also be used as a motivation element. STR6 said that even if the grading part is not similar to other examinable subjects but Guidance and Counselling mark should be part of the final mark in the certificate, as explained by this participant: ‘It shouldn’t be graded like core subject but it should be part of the overall mark in the certificate ‘(STR6, female). STR2 concurred with STR6 that assessment should not be like other subjects but further stressed that emphasis should be on attainment and acquisition of life skills as Gudyanya et al. (2015) asserted that the skills acquired are very important as they help students face future life complexities, and this can be effective if they know how to apply them in their lives (Onyewadume (2008). Participants reflected similar sentiment: „ I think it should be examined, even if it cannot be assessed like other subjects but there should be an exam where emphasis is on life skills ‘(STR2, male) . „Based on my experiences, I would say yes it should be examined but the assessment should be in a form of questionnaires to assess the skills that the students have learnt in class’ (STR3, male).

On the contrary, only 20% of the participants reported that since Guidance and Counselling is a service it cannot be examined. However, only one reason was given to support that there is no need to incorporate the assessment component. The participants stressed that testing a service can always be a challenge because most of the topics in the syllabus were drawn to allow discussions. This supports the findings of Onyewadume‟s (2008) that the preferred methods that teacher counsellors normally use in their guidance lessons are class presentations and discussions. This finding may possibly mean that examining the subject could not be so easy. Furthermore, the participants also associated lack of recognition of Guidance in schools with it not being examinable. This implies that if it is examined it will help students appreciate and realize the necessity to take it seriously like other © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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examined subjects. This is what STR6 noted:„Yes it should be examined. The fact that it is not examined allows students to ignore it and hence fail to give it priority it deserves’ (STR6, female)

Impact of assessment of Guidance and Counselling With regard to this question four themes emerged from the data namely: it improves attitude, students will take the subject seriously, teacher counsellors will be supported and encourage behaviour change among learners.

It can improve attitudes An attitude according to Wade and Tarvis (1993) is a justly steady view concerning a person, object or activity comprising of both the cognitive component as well as an emotional component. With regard to this theme, the percentage of teachers who admitted that assessing Guidance and Counselling will change the overall student and teachers attitudes towards the subject was very high. 85% of the participants said it will change students‟ and teachers‟ view of the subject. Students find a difficulty to perceive Guidance and Counselling as a subject in the same way they do with other academic subjects. The assumption is that since it is not an examinable subject students tend to develop negative attitudes towards it and as such give it less attention. Similarly, some teachers feel Guidance and Counselling is a waste of time. Gerler Jnr (1992) posits that school supervisors on the other hand disregard Guidance and Counselling because its results are not clearly specified so their focus is more on examinable subjects where the results are relatively clear such as high performance rate as well as low dropout rate. From this view one can argue that if Guidance and Counselling is examined it will attract students and teachers attention to embrace and take it seriously. Showing how Guidance and Counselling continues to be stigmatised in the schools, the following was stated: „both teachers and students have a negative attitude on this subject. They feel its waste of time so if it is examined it will be accorded the same respect as other subjects in school’ (STR1, female). In other schools there are cases where some teachers are allowed to help the teacher counsellors teach Guidance and Counselling lessons. Unfortunately, the teachers instead of teaching Guidance and Counselling material they teach their examinable subjects in which they specialise on in order to push the syllabus. Participants further stressed that if this habit goes on unchecked, the students may spend the whole term without being taught Guidance and Counselling lesson and ascribed this to lack of thorough supervision and training .Thus, impacts negatively on the overall behaviour and growth of the students as they are denied the opportunity to cover Guidance and Counselling material. It makes sense that Yuen (2002) supported training for all teachers as it makes sense in such instances. It may be implied that the bad student behaviour rampant in schools maybe a result of this trend as students would not have had the opportunity to be guided well during a Guidance and Counselling lesson. To emphasise this point one participant noted that „teachers feel that it is a waste of time that is why some of them use the guidance lessons to cover the material of their subject areas (STR3, male). Similarly, STR9 explained that „the fact that it is not © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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examined like other subjects, students take that guidance lesson is a free period to play, to visit the toilet or finish assignments given by other subject teachers…‟ (STR9, female). The participants emphasised that lack of training or skills by some of the teacher counsellors may be the reason why students end up disliking the subject. This is supported by what Stockton et al., (1994) had found out that some of the teacher counsellors in schools are not trained and hence this adversely affects their Guidance and Counselling delivery (Lai-Yeung, 2014). From the study 30%of the participants who stated that they were trained were the ones who confessed that students had interest in their lessons and were always looking forward for a guidance lesson. Therefore this may suggest that the untrained teachers because of their lack of training encounter challenges to handle the lessons as compared to their counterparts who are trained. This makes sense because Shumba et al. (2011) in their study found that 50% of the teachers who were not trained in Guidance and Counselling had difficulties to deliver mainly because of lack of competence. This report is similar to Lombo‟s (1993) view that lack of training among school counsellors can make teachers and students have negative attitudes towards Guidance and Counselling. It may not be wrong to conclude that some students out of desperation find themselves idling and hence ultimately use the guidance lesson to engage in unwanted behaviour. The impression given was the fact that Guidance and Counselling has no value hence why it is not given much attention in schools. It is clear that the above sentiments signify that if Guidance and Counselling could be examined the attitudes of both teachers and the students would change for the better. The participants illustrated that Guidance and Counselling is not given the necessary respect it deserves. This finding is similar to Hui‟s (2002) finding in China that teachers and students attitudes have on the subject affect the efficiency of Guidance and Counselling services. Similarly, Reynolds and Cheek (2002) also found that negative attitudes of the students and school administrators affect the usefulness of Guidance and Counselling services. Therefore, if this is the case its effectiveness is compromised because of the attitude from both the teachers and the students. Thus, it is very necessary to fight the negativity and aim for the best in schools.

Students will take the subject seriously Taking the subject seriously in this context means putting effort and working hard in all Guidance and Counselling lessons and activities. The participants emphasised that if the subject is examined students will always prepare for it and enable them to be more active during Guidance lessons. However, they indicated that this subject is very different from other subjects where students have to master content, but that they need skills such as problem solving skills and decision making skills to help them in their behaviour change. Since it positively moulds behaviour this may ultimately help the subject to find its way in being recognised in schools. About 75% of the participants asserted that if it is examined things will change. ‘If it is examined the students will treat it like any other subject…‟ (STR5, female) © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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„…the students will take it more serious…‟ (STR6, female) „It can help improve learners overall academic performance‟ (STR7, female)

Teacher counsellors will be supported To support means to offer assistance to someone. The outcomes of giving support are most of the times positive. The participants asserted that examining Guidance and Counselling will lead it to be recognised like other examinable subjects. They further stressed that lack of support is bound to be there if teachers still feel that Guidance and Counselling is just a waste of time. Teachers in schools need to know and acknowledge the role of Guidance and Counselling in moulding students‟ behaviour. This knowledge and appreciation demands a collective support from the school management and teachers. Research has shown that lack of support for Guidance and Counselling is common in most countries mostly by school supervisors (Lombo, 1993; Maluwa- Banda, 1998). Noticeably, failure to support Guidance and Counselling teachers in schools exacerbates students‟ negative attitudes and in the process frustrates the teacher counsellors who have been subjected to unfair treatment of not being recognised and assisted (Maluwa- Banda, 1998). Similarly, Shumba and his colleagues also found that lack of support by the school management hinders Guidance and Counselling to generate a positive impact in schools (Shumba et al., 2011). The expressions above echo this reality that teacher counsellors are not supported by the management of the school.

Encourage behaviour change among learners Most of the participants expressed that since Guidance and Counselling put emphasis on behaviour change, then if it is examined, it will motivate students to strive for the best behaviour in order to gain certificates. This is in line with Dixon (2008) view that motivation is a determinant of change of behaviour. In this sense certificates will be used to motivate change of behaviour among students. Some participants highlighted that this will cultivate the spirit of competition among the students as they will work harder to improve their moral behaviour. This is in line with Okumu‟s view that Guidance and Counselling is “all about change” (p, 4) and if this change is evident ultimately, there will be peace and harmony in schools.

Conclusion Given these sentiments, two major conclusions emerged from the findings: The majority of the participants, 90% were of the view that G & C should be made an examinable subject. If it were made so, the following benefits would be accrued: The researcher has observed that assessing Guidance and Counselling according to the data obtained would possibly change the negative attitudes that teachers and students have about the subject. Students might take Guidance and

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Counselling seriously, while on the other hand teachers will not feel it is as a waste of time. Studentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s behaviour is likely to change as well. Only trained teachers should teach Guidance and Counselling because lack of training contributes to lack of recognition of its significance as well as struggling to know what to do in a guidance lesson. As a consequence, the Guidance and Counselling overall delivery of the material is affected. The author therefore concludes that until Guidance and Counselling is regarded fundamental like other examinable subject the expected behaviour change among learners and negative attitudes of both teachers and students will possibly not come any time soon in schools. As a result, examining the

subject can act as a stepping stone in the realisation of its significance in schools.

Recommendations Based on the finding of this study, the following recommendations are made: Guidance and Counselling should be an examinable subject. All teacher counsellors should be trained for the subject.

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Reference Abosi, C.O., & Kandjii–Murangi, I .(1996). Education in Botswana: A Reading Text. Gaborone: Macmillan Publishing Company. Botswana Government. (1994). Revised national policy on education (RNPE). Gaborone: Government Printers. Chireshe, R.( 2014). An Assessment of the Effectiveness of School Guidance and Counselling Services in Zimbabwean Secondary Schools. From <http:// hdl.handle.net/10500/1645> Chireshe,R.,& Mapfumo,J.(2005). School counsellors perceptions of headmasters attitudes towards Guidance and Counselling in Zimbabwe secondary schools, Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research, 17(1). Cross, K.P. (1990). Teaching to improve learning. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 1, 9-22. Dixon,A.(2008). Motivation and confidence: What does it take to change behaviour? King‟s fund. Du Preez, W. (2005) Fashioning the future: tomorrow wardrobe/ Suzanne Lee,; images by Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones. London: Thames & Hudson Egbochuku, E.O.(2012).Remedy to the Inadequate Representation of Guidance and Counselling in the National Policy of Education Berun. Gudyanga,E, Wadesango,N, Manzira L. R.& Gudyanga,A.(2015). Current State of Guidance and Counseling in Secondary Schools in Zimbabwe, Journal of Social Sciences,45(1),36-44. Hui,E.K.P.(2002). A whole school approach to guidance . Hong Kong Teachers Perceptions. In British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 30(1), P63-80. Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing, Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications. Lai-Yeung,S.W.C.(2014). The need for guidance and counselling training for teachers, Procedia-Social and behavioural sciences, 113,36-46. Lombo, M.S. (1993). An investigation into the present state of school guidance' in Ciskeian Secondary Schools in the Keiskammahock area. Unpublished MEd thesis, Grahamstown: Rhodes University . Losido, M.G., Spaulding, D.T. & Voegtle, K.H. (2006). Methods in educational research: from theory to practice, San Francisco: Josey Rass. Maluwa-Banda,B.W.(1998). School Counsellors Perceptions of a Guidance and Counselling Programme in Malawi Secondary Schools. In British Journal of Guidance Counselling, 26(2), P287-295. Ministry of Education 1996. Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of Guidance and Counselling in Botswana Education System. Gaborone: Guidance and Counselling Division. Mutie, E.K and Ndambuki, P.W (1999). Guidance and Counselling for Schools and Colleges. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. Navin,S.L.(1989). Guidance and Counselling Programme Developments in Botswana. In International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. 12(3), p, 191-201. Nyamwaka,E.O., Ondima,P.C., Nyamwange,C., Ombaba,S.,& Magaki,E.K.(2013). Assessment of implementation levels of Guidance and counselling programme © 2016 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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in Kenyan secondary schools: A case of Sotik district, Bomet County,Kenya, Journal of Education and Practice, 4(3). Okuma, A.( ). Introduction to Guidance and counselling, African Virtual University. Oniye, A.O., &Alawaye, A.S . (2008). Female students‟ perceived causes and solutions to examination malpractice in ASA Local Government: Implications for counselling. Sokoto Educational Review, 10(2): 1-16. Onyewadume, M.A.(2008). Vernacular as a resource for the implementation of Guidance and Counselling curriculum in Botswana, The African Educational Research network, The African Symposium, 8(2),p175-180. Paisely,P.O., & McMahon,H.G.(2001). School Guidance for the 21sdt century: challenges opportunities, Professional School Counselling, 5(2).p106-115. Polit, D.F. & Beck, C.T. (2012). Nursing research: generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Philadelphia. Baltimore, New York. London. Buenos Aires. Hong Kong. Sydney. Tokyo: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Reynolds,J.,& Cheek,J. (2002).The 7 habits of highly effective Texas school counsellors. In TCA-Journal, 30(1),p86-98. Schmidt,J.J.(1993). Counselling in Schools: Essentials Programmes. New York: Allyn and Beacon.

Services

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Comprehensive

Shumba,A.,Mpofu,E.,Seotlwe, M., & Montsi, M.R.. (2011). Perceived Challenges of Implementing the Guidance Subject in Botswana Primary Schools, Journal of Social Science, 28(1), 1-11. Stockton,R.,& Bhusumane,D.B. (2010). The development of professional counselling in Botswana, Journal of Counselling & Development, 88. Strydom,H., Fouche,C.B., & Delport,C.S.L.(2005). Research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions,(3rd Ed.), Van Shaik Publishers: Pretoria. UNESCO (2000). Guidance Module 1. France: Agzi Communication. Egbochuku EO 2008. Assessment of the quality of guidance and counselling services to students‟ adjustment in secondary schools in Edo State of Nigeria. Research Journal of International Studies, 8: 42-50. Wade,C.,& Tarvis,C.(1993). Psychology, New York, Harper Collins College Publishers. Wagner,J. (2005). Recording Interviews: Guidelines and Resources, school of Education, UC Davis Retrieved from jcwagner.com/papers/AudioRec_v6.pdf Wankiri, V. B. (1994). Training of community mental health nurses in Botswana. World Health Forum, 15, 260–261. Wotuku, J. W. (2002). Status of guidance and counselling in schools: A case of Laikipia district. Unpublished M.Ed project, University of Nairobi. Yuen, M. (2002). Exploring Hong Kong Chinese guidance teachers‟ positive beliefs: A focus group study. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 24, 169 – 182.

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International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 156-174, May 2016

The Effects of an Engineering Design Module on Student Learning in a Middle School Science Classroom Nigel Standish University of Virginia Virginia, United States Rhonda Christensen and Gerald Knezek University of North Texas Texas, United States Willy Kjellstrom and Eric Bredder Albemarle County Public Schools Virginia, United States Abstract. Eighth grade students often experience difficulty concretely representing learning objectives in a physical science course. In order to determine the effect of engineering design modules, advanced manufacturing machines were employed including 2D and 3D fabricators to create tangible objects from computer-aided designs. Students completed the Waves and Sound Assessment prior to participating in the digital fabrication activities, and again after the hands-on activities. We also aimed to examine differences in learning based on sex. Major findings for the 13 males and 8 females were that both males (p < .01) and females (p < .01) gained a large amount of knowledge over the course of the two week-long unit on waves and sound. Large effect sizes for the open-ended questions and multiplechoice questions were found in both males (d = .83) and females (d = 1.48). There were no significant differences in scores between sexes at either the pretest or the posttest time period for the open-ended or multiple-choice questions. Findings indicate advanced manufacturing activities were effective for both boys and girls in fostering gains in science content knowledge related to waves and sound concepts. Keywords: digital fabrication; advanced manufacturing; physical science; middle school

Introduction The need to improve Kâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;12 education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects has been generally agreed upon for several years (National Research Council (NRC), 2009). Groups and agencies calling for improvements and changes include the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Board, and the National Academies (Livingston, 2008; NSB,

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2007; NAS, NAE, 2011). Generally, the goal is to improve STEM education programs so that future generations are more qualified for employment in the rapidly growing technology fields. The U.S. National Assessment of Education Progress reports roughly 75% of U.S. eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics or science when they complete 8th grade (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), 2010). Employers report job applicants lack needed skills in these subject areas to succeed in the work place (National Governors’ Association (NGA), 2007). The problem is not just a lack of proficiency but also a lack of interest among American students in STEM content areas and careers (PCAST, 2010). STEM education is seen as a key component to overcoming the challenges facing this nation in an increasingly interconnected and competitive world (NGA, 2007). The general consensus is that an improvement in K–12 STEM education will help meet these needs. The skills acquired in STEM content areas during the middle school years lay the foundation for a successful career in the STEM workforce (Woolley, Strutchens, Gilbert, & Martin, 2010) as many STEM occupations require competencies in science, mathematics, technology, and problem solving. Because the future is changing at such a rapid pace, it is crucial to focus on the development of middle school students (George, Stevenson, Thomason, & Beane, 1992). Without the proper scaffolding, more advanced study is impossible. The presence of engineering in K–12 classrooms is important because of the implications engineering education has on the future of STEM education (Brophy, Klein, Portsmore, & Rogers 2008). Implementing engineering education in K-12 schools may improve student learning and achievement in STEM subjects; increase student awareness of engineering and the work of engineers; boost youth interest in pursuing engineering as a career; and increase the technological literacy of all students (Brophy et al., 2008). Advancement in engineering education may even be a key for a more coalesced and effective K– 12 STEM education system in the United States (NRC, 2009).

Literature Review Using design-based learning experiences in middle school STEM classrooms can provide real-world context to otherwise abstract and difficult STEM concepts, potentially helping students retain what they learn more effectively (NRC, 2009). Current research studies regarding hands-on learning experiences have shown improvement in student learning and achievement in mathematics and science (Akinoglu & Tandogan, 2007. Design-based learning has also proven to enhance students' interest in STEM subjects (NRC, 2009). Educators and administrators are interested in this hypothesis because of the lack of significant improvements from other means to improve STEM achievement and interest in K-12 education (NRC, 2009). Engineering Design. Engineering design is an open-ended problemsolving process with specific constraints and goals. Over several iterations, students create, test and refine solutions until they have satisfactorily met the required specifications. This process provides key relevance because most realworld problems are not well defined (Dym, Agogino, Eris, Frey, & Leifer, 2005).

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The ratification of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is indicative of the emerging view of national education leaders that engineering design is an integral and complementary part of scientific literacy (Cajas, 2001). In fact, the NGSS place engineering design on the same level as scientific inquiry. The rationale emphasizes the value of engineering in solving meaningful problems and providing opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of science by applying the knowledge they gain in a real-world context (NGSS, 2013). These national standards indicate teaching science through engineering design may be a worthwhile endeavor. Enabling students to reason scientifically is one of the key elements in successful science teaching (Chinn & Malhotra, 2002). Traditionally however, science teaching has used pedagogical methods such as lectures, readings, worksheets, and demonstrations to impart facts and rudimentary skills to the science student (Silk, Schunn, & Cary, 2009). Theoretical knowledge alone does not provide students with the skills necessary to translate that knowledge into solving real-world problems (Horwitz, 1995). High school students who scored well on question-and-answer tests of electrical circuits could not build or troubleshoot physical circuit models. Building, testing, and refining real models can close the gap between theoretical and applied knowledge and increase scientific understanding. The National Research Council (2009) purports that a classroom should be an environment in which more emphasis is given to knowledge that is useful. Engineering design is an approach that offers the ability for teachers to implement the NRCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recommendation. It provides students the opportunity to explore science concepts through the construction of models in a relevant context (Silk et al., 2009). Engineering design curricula may have several benefits including engaging students in science reasoning. Using engineering design may help students better realize the usefulness of scientific knowledge in solving realworld problems (Fortus, 2005). When students participate in problem-solving in a relevant context they are more likely to engage and question the results of the experiment, rather than accepting what the books says even if their data results are contrary to the book (Benenson, 2001). Engineering design activities also provide opportunities to model difficult concepts with physical representations. This requires students to take into account physical limitations that may not be apparent with images in a book and providing a real-world representation of the concept being learned so that other students can learn from and critique the model (Roth, 2001). This model requires teachers to allow students to direct their own experimentation. It also requires that both teachers and students be willing to accept and even embrace failures during the iterative process (Smith, 2015). Digital Fabrication. The rapid development of low cost, easy to use digital fabricators has allowed schools to adopt these advanced manufacturing machines in many classrooms (Bull & Groves, 2009). Digital fabrication is being used to promote higher order thinking and problem solving skills in middle school students by allowing students to conceptualize an idea and then realize the idea in a physical form (Bull & Groves, 2009). Digital fabrication involves automated conversion of a digital design into a physical object through a computer-controlled fabrication system. The Society

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of Manufacturing Engineering (SME) concludes that personal digital fabrication will offer â&#x20AC;&#x153;revolutionary changes for both manufacturers and the everyday consumer.â&#x20AC;? The Society lists personal fabrication as one of the key Innovations that Could Change Engineering, noting that the U.S. Department of Education has identified innovations of this kind as vital to future prosperity. Other findings have shown that by fabricating artifact based on scientific concepts, students can demonstrate a fuller understanding of the science principles being studied (Hmelo, Holton, & Kolodner, 2000). For high-risk urban middle school classrooms implementing the engineering design process significant content gains were reported in the science classroom (Silk et al., 2009). Achievement Gap. It is often assumed that girls are less likely than boys to perform well in mathematics and science classes and are more likely to lose interest in STEM subjects in the middle grades (Kahle, Meece, & Scantlebury, 2000). In many cases, though, empirical research is not definitive and in some cases no differences are observed (e.g., Pine et al. 2006). Furthermore, the gender gap may not involve the same causation among different ethnicities (Kahle et al., 2000). The gap in STEM interest and achievement between boys and girls has been the subject of several research studies (Choi & Chang, 2009). Although previous studies have demonstrated that male students perform better in STEM areas than female students, Choi and Chang (2009) reported that recent studies have shown mixed results. As Knezek, Christensen & Tyler-Wood (2011) argued, the gender gap is less of an ability gap than a gap in perceptions of science careers. While girls often score higher on math achievement in the classroom than boys, it is the opposite for standardized math scores (Liu, 2008). These gender differences related to math types of scores have been attributed to females thriving in the social aspect of the classroom while standardized tests are typically given in a more impersonal environment. Including social aspects in science and mathematics activities may be a more effective learning environment for girls. Fewer than 10% of engineers in the United States are female (Hirsch, Carpinelli, Kimmel, Rockland, & Bloom, 2007). Many women are relatively uninformed about STEM fields and many are thought to have a higher attraction to career fields perceived as being of service to society (Hirsch et al., 2007). Other studies have found that traditional technology and engineering courses are not taught in a style that will appeal to females (Weber, 2012) yet when these types of courses incorporate engaging, real-world activities, both males and females are engaged (Mitts & Haynie, 2010; Weber & Custer, 2005). Challenges Faced. Despite the national and international focus on STEM education, our understanding of how K-12 students learn science through engineering design is still limited. Engineering design is difficult to learn, teach, and assess, and there is not yet a large body of studies that have explored this topic (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). The National Academy of Engineering report, Engineering in K-12 Education, concludes that existing science curricula do not fully take advantage of the connections between engineering and the other STEM subjects (Katehi et al., 2009).

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The difference in the results and time constraints of implementing an engineering design in a diverse population can be significant (Kuhn & Dean, 2008). Li, Klahr, and Siler (2006) found that students from affluent homes could design an experiment within two days while students from less affluent homes could take up to three weeks depending upon the classroom and school. The population in which research is conducted must be accounted for when determining the effectiveness of the intervention (Lee, Deaktor, Hart, Cueva, & Enders, 2005). With these challenges in mind, Fortus, Dershimer, Marx, Krajcik, and Mamlok-Naaman (2004) found significant gains in students who engaged in design-based learning in science classrooms. These students constructed scientific knowledge through hands-on activities that encouraged them to problem solve and demonstrate their knowledge gains. Other findings have shown that by fabricating models of a scientific concept, students demonstrate a deeper understanding of the science being studied (Hmelo, Holton, & Kolodner, 2000). Research Questions. The relatively recent emergence of the importance of engineering education in K-12 has exposed several key questions for educators, policy makers, and researchers to consider. How should engineering be taught in Kâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;12 schools? What instructional materials, curricula, and instructional methods are currently being used to teach engineering education? Has current implementation of engineering in K-12 schools improved student achievement in STEM subjects or increased interest and awareness in STEM careers (NRC, 2009)? This study builds upon previous research which indicates engineering design projects may reduce the achievement gap among students while boosting standardized test scores in science subjects (Cantrell, Pekcan, Itani, & VelasquezBryant, 2006) by testing the following questions: 1. What effect does participation in an engineering design module on waves and sound have on middle school studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s content knowledge of science, mathematics and engineering concepts? a. Do male and female students differ in their levels of competence gained in science, mathematics and engineering content after participation in an engineering design module? b. Do students in separate classes differ in their levels of competence gained in mathematics and engineering content after participation in an engineering design module?

Methods This study executed a quasi-experimental design with a one group pretest-posttest design (Campbell & Stanley, 1966). Quantitative research methods were used to measure and examine data to explore the research questions. Participants. This study was conducted as a pilot in a middle school located in a mid-Atlantic state. The population was comprised of 48.4% African American, 40.9% White, 6.7% Hispanic, and 4% Asian/Pacific Islander students. Fifteen percent of students speak English as a second language. Twenty-nine percent of the students have been identified as gifted and 14.7% are classified as

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special education students. Students in three eighth grade science classes served as participants for this study. A total of 54 students in three different classrooms participated in this engineering design module. However, due to absence caused by a multitude of reasons including sickness, discipline, and familial circumstances, only 21 were present for each day of instruction and completed the pretest and posttest (13 males and 8 females). The teacher for each of the three sections is a veteran public school teacher with 27 years of experience that includes teaching physical science at the middle and high school levels. His philosophy of teaching embraced projectbased learning, and he is an advocate of STEM initiatives that encouraged students of all backgrounds to become involved in STEM subject areas.

Intervention Overview. The engineering design module was comprised of five 90 minute block classes in an eighth grade physical science course over the span of two weeks. Teams of students were given the task of building two speakers. One speaker was to be designed to play low frequencies, referred to as the subwoofer. The second speaker was to be designed to play higher frequencies and was called the tweeter. Students learned progressively more about the behavior and manipulation of waves throughout the five lessons. Each of these lessons included hands-on activities utilizing several advanced manufacturing machines such as 2D and 3D fabricators to create tangible objects from computer-aided design software. Using advanced manufacturing tools allowed students to test their designs and make the necessary changes to create more effective models. In building, testing, and refining the speakers, the students engaged in the engineering design process. Digital fabrication. Digital fabrication is a process that creates tangible physical objects from digital designs. The digital design can be created on a tablet or computer using a myriad of software-based solutions. Digital fabrication offers many options for the classroom educator to implement projectbased learning while building skills in subject areas such as mathematics, science, and engineering. Advanced manufacturing machines such as 3D printers and die cutters can be coupled with technology such as 3-dimensional computer design software, computers and tablets and sound level meters. The die cutters us a small razor to automatically cut out shapes of all kinds on 2-dimensional materials such as paper and cardstock. The CAD (computer aided design) software allowed students to design and draw objects on the computer using real dimensions and preview their object before fabrication. This provided the students with the opportunity to use real software to design something that would come to life, just like an engineer would. The students then used this model on the software and sent it to the die cutter so that it could cut it out to the correct specifications set by the students so that they were ready to fabricate a working model. An example of digital fabrication in this experiment was when students created the cone for their speakers. They began by drafting rough design

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dimensions onto paper before using the FabLab Model Maker software to draw the cone on the speaker. The digital design was exported to the Silhouette CAMEO which cut the cone from cardstock paper. Software and hardware. FabLab Model Maker (Aspex, London) was the primary computer aided design (CAD) software program students used to design the speakers. This particular software was chosen because of the built in hardware support for 2D and 3D fabricators. Microsoft Excel was used to develop the frequency response graphs which students used to measure the efficacy of each subwoofer and tweeter. The 2D fabricator employed was the Silhouette CAMEO die cutter. Generic decibel meters were utilized by students while creating frequency response curves. AFINIA 3D printers were also introduced to the students. However, incorporating the 3D printer into the five lessons became non-viable due to time constraints. Students utilized the 3D printer later in the semester to improve their speaker design but data and observations from that extension are not included in this paper. The students also used a sound level meter to test the loudness or amplitude of their speaker. This allowed the students to capture an intangible concept and map it in relation to their speaker design. The sound level meter brought a reality to the idea of volume so that they could see what their speaker could do. Curriculum. The learning objectives of this unit included learning the properties of soundwaves while building, testing and refining a set of working speakers using advanced manufacturing technologies. Day one. Students created a pre-designed paper speaker using the FabLab Model Maker software to test and compare with commercial speakers using low, mid, and high tones to enhance their understanding that different speaker designs are used to functionally play different tones more efficiently. This speaker became the base design from which changes, modifications, and adaptations were made to fulfill the design specifications for the subwoofer and tweeter speakers. Day two. Students explored some of the properties of waves including wavelength, amplitude, frequency and period using various commercial and improvised tuning forks. Students further studied this phenomenon by building a pendulum dispensing paint mechanism. By pulling paper underneath the paint dripping pendulum as it swung, students created sine waves from which they identified the properties of a wave. Day three. Students, on day three, explored the features of the FabLab Model Maker software. They practiced making different shapes and cutting them using the Silhouette CAMEO. Day four. Refinement began in earnest on day four. Students used pencil and paper to draw, document, and justify planned changes. The designs created included metric measurements for each speaker part to be fabricated. Teams then created digital designs using the FabLab Model Maker software and fabricated their designs using the Silouette CAMEOs. Day five. Upon completion of the construction of the speakers, students began testing their designs. Using an online tone generator, students would play specific pre-determined frequencies through each speaker. Students would

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record the loudness of the speaker at each frequency using a decibel meter. These measurements were entered into an Excel spreadsheet and a graph was created to display the frequency response for the speaker. By combining the frequency response graph for a tweet and a subwoofer, teams were able to determine the range and peak frequencies for their speaker pair.

Instrumentation Eighth grade students in three different classes of a physical science course took the Waves and Sound Assessment prior to participating in the unit. The assessment consisted of multiple-choice and open-ended questions designed to evaluate participants’ understanding of sound and sound waves. Included items were retrieved from the following sources:  The International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS);  Prentice Hall Physical Science Concepts in Action (Wysession, Frank, & Yancopoulos, 2011) by Pearson Education;  The physical science curriculum framework (8th grade) published by the Virginia Department of Education;  Albemarle County Public Schools’ Physical Science Matrix; and  STEM educators affiliated with the University of Virginia. The assessment was not validated through formal measurement testing; however content area experts in science, mathematics, and instructional technology provided iterative feedback during the development of the assessment tool. Two blinded raters scored all of the pre-assessments. One rater was a former high school technology educator with knowledge of the core scientific principles associated with sound waves and sound. The other rater was a former high school science teacher. Participants’ responses received a correct or incorrect notation for all of the multiple-choice items (0 = Incorrect, 1 = Correct). Open-ended questions were rated according to a general rubric that evaluated the presence or absence of scientific understanding of sound and sound waves. The ordinal scale for evaluating open-ended items included the following levels:  5 Points: All items are addressed. Full inclusion of science principles. Explanations include proper terms and usage throughout response.  4 Points: Response is thorough, missing one element to response to provide complete understanding of science concepts.  3 Points: General conceptual understanding. Missing elements to providing a full response that addresses all science principles. Misconceptions may still exist.  2 Points: Response is vague and addresses a common understanding, while providing some instances of misconceptions.  1 Point: Blank response or no relation to the question asked. Full misconception in response. The pre-assessments were scored by the two raters and the average measure intraclass correlation coefficent was .903 with a 95% confidence interval from .847 to .938, p < .001. A post hoc power analysis was conducted using the software package, GPower (Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner, & Lang, 2009). The sample size of 20 was used for the statistical power analyses and the alpha level used for

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this analysis was p < .05. The post hoc analyses revealed the statistical power for this study exceeded .99. Thus, there was more than adequate power. The same assessment was re-administered after the 5-day unit. Pre to post knowledge gains were compared using paired t test; students were then grouped by sex for pre-post knowledge gain comparisons. Finally, the knowledge gains were compared between the sexes. All alpha levels were set a priori at 0.05. Cohen’s d was used for effect size calculation (Cohen, 1988) and were interpreted as small = .2, moderate = .5, or large > .8.

Results The multiple-choice items that were scored as 0 for incorrect and 1 for correct were totaled for the TotMC label (possible range of 0 – 13). The openended rated items were averaged for a label of OpenAvg (possible range of 9 – 45). The participants were paired and a paired t-test was run on the means and sums pre-post. As shown in Table 1, both indicators of content knowledge showed significant gains (p < .01) with large effect sizes. Table 1: Paired Sample Analysis of Content Knowledge Gains, Pre to Post

Pair 1 Pair 2

Pre OpenAvg PostOpenAvg PreTotMC PostTotMC

Mean

Std. Dev.

19.50 29.75 6.05 8.65

20 20 20 20

4.199 9.640 2.625 2.641

Sig.

Effect Size

.0005

1.38

.0005

0.99

Gender Comparisons. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare the mean scores of the 13 males to those of the 8 females in this group of students, as shown in Tables 2 and 3, no significant (p < .05) differences in scores by gender for the open-ended questions or the multiple-choice questions, at the pretest or the posttest time period, were found. Gender-specific analyses of the indices confirmed that both males and females gained a large amount of knowledge over the course of the week-long unit on waves and motions. The effect size for males from pre to post on the open-ended questions was ES = 1.28 (Cohen’s d = 29.4-18.8/Pooled SD) while the effect size for females pre to post was ES = 1.48 (30.4-21.5/Pooled SD). With regard to multiple-choice questions, the effect size for males pre to post was ES = .83, while for females the pre to post gain was ES = 1.45. All would be considered large gains according to guidelines provided by Cohen (1988). The similar pre-post gains in content knowledge by males and females are graphically illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

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Table 2: Analysis of Open-ended Content Scores by Gender

Male Female Total Male Female Total

PreOpenAvg

PostOpenAvg

Mean

Std. Deviation

13 8 21 13 7 20

18.77 21.50 19.81 29.38 30.43 29.75

4.531 3.625 4.332 10.813 7.721 9.640

Sig

.166

.824

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Male

female

Male

PreOpenAvg

female

PostOpenAvg

Figure 1: Pre and post comparisons by gender for open-ended content scores. Table 3: Gender Comparisons for Multiple Choice Content Scores

PreTotMC

PostTotMC

Mean

Std. Deviation

Male Female Total

13 8 21

5.69 6.88 6.14

2.983 1.727 2.594

.323

Male Female Total

13 7 20

8.08 9.71 8.65

2.783 2.138 2.641

.194

Sig

166

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Male

female

Male

PreTotMC

female PostTotMC

Figure 2: Pre and post comparisons by gender for multiple-choice question scores.

These findings led to the following conclusion regarding research question 2: Both male and female middle school students completing a digital fabrication unit exhibited large gains in content knowledge. No conclusive (p < .05) evidence was found to indicate that males versus females began at differing levels of content knowledge, nor that they differed in the extent of knowledge gain. Comparisons Among Classes. A one-way analysis of variance by class was completed for the three eighth grade classes on their open-ended questions at pretest and at posttest times (see Table 4). There were small numbers of fabrication activity participants in each group but the differences between classes was found to be significant (p < .05) at the pretest and at the post test times. With regard to gains, Class 2 gained approximately five points from pre to post, while Class 1 and Class 3 each gained approximately 8 content points. The pre to post effect sizes were: ES = 1.27 for Class 1; ES = .54 for Class 2; and ES = 2.50 for Class 3. Class 2 exhibited a moderate gain (Cohen, 1988) while for Class 1 and Class 3 the gains were very large (Cohen, 1988). These and other trends are graphically displayed in Figure 3. Table 4: One-way Analysis by Class on Open-Ended Questions

PreOpenAvg

PostOpenAvg

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Total Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Total

Mean

Std. Dev.

8 3 10 21 8 3 9 20

20.00 13.67 21.50 19.81 28.75 18.33 34.44 29.75

3.59 3.22 3.69 4.33 9.00 11.85 6.33 9.64

Sig.

.014

.030

167

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Class1

Class2

Class3

Figure 3: Pre-post open-ended questions by class.

One-way analysis of variance by class was also completed for the three eighth grade classes on their multiple choice questions at pretest and at posttest times (see Table 5). There were small numbers of fabrication activity participants in each group but the differences between classes were found to be significant (p < .05) at the pretest and at the post test times. With regard to gains, the pre to post effect sizes were: ES = 1.06 for Class 1; ES = 2.90 for Class 2; and ES = 1.49 for Class 3. Class 2 exhibited an extremely large gain (Cohen, 1988) from its pretest low starting point (1.67) while for Class 1 and Class 3 the gains were very large (Cohen, 1988). These and other trends are graphically displayed in Figure 4. Note that the effect size for class 2 could have been somewhat inflated by the very small sample size of n = 3. However, it is also possible that Class 2 truly had lower content knowledge at the pretest time, and that this class exhibited higher gains in basic knowledge commonly assessed by multiple choice questions. Table 5: Oneway Analysis by Class for Multiple-Choice Questions

PreTotMC

PostTotMC

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Total Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Total

Mean

Std. Dev.

8 3 10 21 8 3 9 20

6.75 1.67 7.00 6.14 9.13 4.33 9.67 8.65

1.83 .58 2.11 2.59 2.59 1.16 1.41 2.64

Sig.

.001

.003

168

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Class1

Class2

Class3

Figure 4: Pre-post multiple-choice items by class.

These findings led to the following conclusion regarding research question 3: There were significant (p < .05) differences among middle school students in three classes completing digital fabrication units in their levels of competency in content knowledge of mathematics and engineering. These differences existed at pre-test time, posttest time, and in the extent of gain. In particular, Class 2 began with scores much lower than Class 1 or Class 3 on open-ended and multiple-choice tests, and remained in that relative position at the post test time. However, while Class 2 exhibited the smallest gain among the three (ES = .54) on the open-ended questions, it exhibited the highest gain among the three (ES = 2.90) on the multiple-choice questions. This may be a reflection of the lower versus higher cognitive skills commonly assessed by multiple-choice items versus open-ended items, respectively.

Discussion The dual methods employed for assessing content gain in this study generally reinforced each other, resulting in similar conclusions regarding the significance (p < .05) and magnitude (moderate to large effect) of the gain. Effect size indices are especially important in examining the data from this study as all pre-post measures resulted in effect size gains (Cohenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s d) greater than ES > .3, the point at which gains would normally be considered educationally meaningful (Bialo & Sivin - Kachala, 1996). These findings have cross-validated the multiple choice test item portion of the study with the much more timeconsuming human-rater scoring of open-ended questions, implying that future studies without extensive human-rater resources might be able to rely on wellformulated multiple choice tests alone. Student participation in activities that promote engineering design principles while teaching science and mathematics concepts may improve both achievement as well as interest in a STEM career. The students in this study gained a significant (p < .05) amount in their content knowledge related to the waves and sound curriculum. On site observations indicated that this activity enhanced student enthusiasm for and engagement in learning. In future studies ÂŠ 2016 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

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direct measurement of attitude change as well as gains in content knowledge might be warranted to address the issues regarding the lack of proficiency and interest among American students reported by PCAST (2010). Findings from this study are consistent with previous research indicating that fabrication coupled with engineering design projects may reduce the achievement gap among students in science subjects (Cantrell et al., 2006). Fortus, Dershimer, Marx, Krajcik, and Mamlok-Naaman (2004) found significant gains in students who engaged in design-based learning in science classrooms. Similar to findings from previous research (Fortus, et al., 2004) these students constructed scientific knowledge through hands-on activities that encouraged them to problem solve and demonstrate their knowledge gains. Although the educationally meaningful (ES > .3) content gains found in each of three classrooms provides evidence of the ability to replicate the positive impact of the Waves and Sound curricular unit, the possibility still remains that students without these activities might have exhibited similar gains. Replication of this study with suitable comparison group data – such as pre- and posttest data from comparable students who did not experience digital fabrication activities – is warranted.

Conclusions K–12 engineering education may improve student learning and achievement in science and mathematics; increase awareness of engineering and the work of engineers; boost youth interest in pursuing engineering as a career; and increase the technological literacy of all students (Brophy et al., 2008). Advancement in engineering education may even be a key for a more coalesced and effective K–12 STEM education system in the United States (NRC, 2009) Eighth grade students involved in an engineering design unit using advanced manufacturing tools were found to have measurably large content gains (p < .01, ES > .8) (Cohen, 1988) on multiple-choice test items and openended test questions featuring waves and motion, the focus of their intervention curricular unit. No significant (p < .05) differences were found by gender. Some differences (p < .05) were indicated among the three treatment classes. Additional research is needed to isolate the reasons for these differences. Replication studies are warranted to reconfirm these findings in the context of a strong comparison group. These collective findings led to the following conclusion regarding research question 1: Middle school students completing a digital fabrication unit focused on waves and sounds do indeed gain in content knowledge of science, mathematics and engineering concepts.

Acknowledgment This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experience for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Grant #1030865.

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Appendix Sound Unit Assessment. Instructions: The following assessment is designed to find out what you know about waves and sound. Do not worry if you do not know all of the answers. If you do not know or cannot guess, leave choices blank or write "I don't know" on the lines. Please try to choose the best answer from the choices, and write what you do know about waves and sound on the lines. Use the diagram of the wave below to answer questions 1-3.y

1. The wavelength is best described as the horizontal distance between: 0 a. points 1 and 2. b. points 1 and 4. c. points 2 and 3. d. points 2 and 4. How confident are you in your response to question 1? 1-not confident (a guess), 2-pretty confident, 3-very confident 2. The amplitude of the wave is best described as: a. the vertical distance between points 0 and 1. b. the vertical distance between points 1 and 2. c. the horizontal distance between points 2 and 3. d. the horizontal distance between points 2 and 4. How confident are you in your response to question 2? 1-not confident (a guess), 2-pretty confident, 3-very confident Use the wave below to answer questions 4-6.

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3. The wavelength is depicted by a. A b. B c. C How confident are you in your response to question 3? 1-not confident (a guess), 2-pretty confident, 3-very confident 4. Circle an area where the amplitude is highest. How confident are you in your response to question 4? 1-not confident (a guess), 2-pretty confident, 3-very confident 5. a. List three similarities between longitudinal (compression) waves and transverse waves. b. List two differences between these two types of waves. 6. Which of the waves below has the higher frequency? Need to know what the axis and scale. a. A b. B

Explain why you selected the wave B you selected. 7. How are the frequency and wavelength of a wave related? Explain your thinking. 8. A sound that you hear is caused by an object vibrating, which then causes: Could swap with bell jar question. particles to move to your ear through material (a medium). b. particles to move to your ear through material (a medium) or through nothing (a vacuum, such as outer space). c. energy to move to your ear through material (a medium). d. energy to move to your ear through material (a medium) or through nothing (a vacuum, such as outer space). How confident are you in your response to question 10? 1-not confident (a guess), 2-pretty confident, 3-very confident 9. A sound wave is transmitted through air, glass, and water. If the vibration starting the sound wave begins at the same instant for all three materials, rank the order in which the sound would travel fastest (from 1fastest sound to 3- slowest sound). ___ Air ___ Glass ___ Water Explain your thinking.

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10. Your science teacher challenges you to design a speaker cone that transmits sound at specific pitch (frequency). a. What effect, if any, will increasing the size of a speaker cone have on the sound you hear? (Consider whether the sound will be louder or softer, higher or lower pitch, etc.) Why do you think so? b. What effect, if any, will increasing the size of a speaker cone have on the wavelength of the sound produced? Why do you think so? c. How would you design the speaker cone? (Describe the steps you would take or the process you would use.) Why would you do it this way? d. How will you know if your design is successful? Explain your thinking.