Perspectives and Beyond

By the looks of it, this may be the last posting?
I don't know about everyone else, but it has been heads down since last session.
What I have found along the way is a greater understanding of the variety of frameworks. Ever mindful of maintaining focus on 'The Proposal', as it is easy to get laid way in research and other views of looking at task at hand. So I have been cutting and pasting for potential use in assignment 2 in reserve as I go, in case things don't go as proposed - if you know what I mean,
KT

Last Post

Hi All,

Sadly, I can no longer continue with "Current Issues in Education". It was a good five weeks, and I hope you have fun and enjoy the rest of the course. You all had excelent ideas, which I will sadly miss hearing about. Good Luck to everyone.

Cheers,
Andrew




'Parting is such sweet-sorrow' - Will

last post

Project Description:
Organizational innovation is a difficult process. Most innovations fail because of the failure of intercultural communication. In this article research on teacher/student interaction is significantly applied in an educational innovation from activity theory and four-frame model perspectives. I am going to take my own working organization as an example, which is a branch of Xin Jinshan week-ends Chinese language school in Melbourne. The branch principle decides to carry out an educational innovation in order to improve students’ abilities in each level as well as to increase the students’ enrollment. As far as I am concerned, if I was the branch principle, I would outline the innovation plan that identifies, describes and justifies in both activity theory and four-frame model perspectives that will be used in the analysis this issue. I may also wish to break the overall issue into a number of sub-issues.
1. Highlighting the importance of student/teacher interaction in an educational innovation.
2. Understanding the difficulties of implementing the innovation in an educational organization with cross-cultural characteristics.

Let's try to sum up (a bit!)

Well done to those of you who have contributed to the discussion on the blog. The impressive thing is the level of assistance that you have provided each other with encouragement and ideas.
Lets try to take stock a bit ...

1. You all seem to have settled on what are reasonable topics. These will continue to evolve as time goes by. But, don't panic at this stage, you all have starting points.
2. You have had useful discussions about a range of frameworks, perspectives, and my impression is that you are at the point of being able to make useful decisions about what you intend to do for assignment 2. Remember, assignment 1 is a proposal only.

So, have a look at the wiki, there is a template for the proposal. Do the best that you can for tomorrow evening and bring along two (2) hard copies to share with others. Tomorrow evening will give a great opportuinity for feedback, critique and improvement.

UNless there is a general view that this blog should continue I will close it down at the end of this week. So, if you need to lodge more contributions then you need to get it done.

See you tomorrow.

Ian

more considerations

as i mentioned in my previous post, there are key stakeholders mentioned in the discussion paper that i will analyze, therefore, i am considering also applying 3rd generation AT theory to enable me to identify commonalities within these 3 key stakeholders; VET/TAFE, Government and Industry. i will also apply Bernstein's classification & framing perspectives to identify differences and challenges amongst these 3 key stakeholders

thanks katie for your comment, i found it very useful in forming a stratergy. i now considering applying AT and also Burnstein to most key points. I am also considering applying Boleman&Deal, four-frame model to the organisations that are key stakeholders in the discussion paper, VET/TAFE, Government and Industry. It may also be possible that the four-frame model will assist in indentifying other points relevant to AT and Burnstein

B & D narrative style

In researching Bolman & Deal,you would have noticed the narrative style the frames are unfolded/presented in. The likes of Cindy Marshall and Reframing organisations case studies. ALthough this is going to be a minor perspective in exploring/analysing my contemporary issue on literacy and numeracy tools and VET stakeholders, I am going to give it a go/trial.
I have a hunch its application will be limited because one can identify assumptions that underpin the issue. - keep you posted Tue night,
KT

Finally, i decide to change my topic

hey guys!
I finally decide to change my topic. I know it is a bit disappointing , but i don't think it is too late, as i still have around 10 days to do the assignment.
My new topic is "how do Chinese students adapt to the acdemic practices in the English speaking institution?" I have already interviewed some Chinese students to get some basic ideas.
I will mainly focus on the difficulties which Chinese students meet; and Bernstein's theory can be applies here, such as "language codes and Recognition & Realisation Rules" can be used to analyze why Chinese students usually perform passively in the class. And also i can use Activity Theory to get some ideas about how to improve their engagement during the class etc. If you have any ideas about this topic, please tell me!
Thanks in advance@!

Dan Xue

Hi,
I am having the same problem as Apple in regards to addressing such a broad topic. The discussion paper that i am addressing (Securing our future economic prosperity/Discussion Paper on Skills Reform) is complex. I am finding it difficult in deciding what key points that i should cover.

four frame model

For our first assignment, each person is required to submit a written presentation that identifies, describes and justifies more than one perspective. i am lost in Bloman's four frame model. especially, i am confused about symbolic frame. according to the opinion of Bolman cited Ortner (19 73), the symbolic frame 's core assumptions: what is most important about any event is not what happened but what it means; people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, anchor hope and faith. (Bolman, 1997) in my opinion, the symbolic frame is a kind of vision of the organization. the vision concerns an organization’s future business path – ‘where we are going’, ‘what do we want to become’ which refers to organization’s long-term direction. for instance, taking my working organization as the example, i have been employed as one chinese langugae teacher by the chinese language weekends school. our vision is that making sure all students in our school enjoy learning Chinese and getting them to learn about Chinese culture. Moreover, teachers are working hard to make the class more interesting, and guarantee our educational quality. thus, i think if teachers apply leaning activities in class that could inspire students' interest in learning chinese language.

my topic

In week 3, we discussed activity theory, which links with my topic, I want to do some research about why more and more teachers tend to use learning activities to assist their class teaching. For my own experiences, when I was in primary school, I remember most of my teachers were used to relay on lesson plan and some simple teaching tools, such as chalks, blackboard to teach students. It was teaching centered leaning environment, teachers transfer teaching points by oral language that was boring and ineffective for my point of view. Thus, in my first assignment, I want to link activity theory with personal experience, talking about the importance of learning activity used in class for primary teachers.

hi everyone

Hi, all! eventually, i remember my password and login. i just post my learning journal after each class firstly then attach my topic of the first assignment. welcome to any point of view from your guys. thanks all.

week 3
In this class, we were taking about the introduction to activity theory. The activity is the basic unit of analysis and that the relationship between the subject and object is mediated by tools. There are three generation activity theories. I want to make link my personal working experiences with the activity theory for curriculum development, especially, face to face of third generation activity theory in practice. I have been employed as a Chinese language teacher by Xin Jiashan Chinese language school in Melbourne. For instance, when I teach Chinese, I prefer small class siz, because I am able to organize face to face teaching activity that encourage interaction between teacher and each student. Based on the case of conventional face to face classroom based practice the teacher is responsible for the delivery of the teaching points, I prefer the way of using multi-media tools that not only inspire students’ interest but also make the class organization easier. For instance, I can make a Power Point instead of traditional paper class plan. Within this environment, the community includes me and students; moreover, the influence of authors of pre-prepared materials and textbooks is present through their use to support teaching (John & Baggott La Velle, 2005).

Our proposal!

Hi everyone,

We really had the great discussion on Tuesday. We were not only a part of Bernstein’ theory (as Samaneh said) but we were also in the Activity Theory. Actually, these theories are found existing around us. The thing is whether we can recognize or realize or not, isn’t it? Thanks to Ian and other classmates, especially Michele, I got another point of view for my topic. I need to look at the reality of the educational standard in the context of the society such as school/government policy. Sometimes, teachers know that this is the right thing to do (play-based learning-my topic) but under the pressure of the educational standards (No Child Left Behind Act) in practice, this approach can not be implemented in the class. However, with the collected tools, i am confident to encourage and stimulate teachers to give children “the right to play”.

I would like to receive your opinions/comments to contribute to my proposal!

Thanks all,

Ly

Hi everyone,

I think we had a great class last night, It was amazing for me because I heard some fresh ideas, also I found my classmates’ eagerness to do their assignments. Thanks for sharing your opinions. To be honest for me it is like a challenge, but in this stage I am not worried as much as I was during the last week.

May be we were in a part of Bernstein’s theory last night, I can explain that in this way; two weeks ago we experienced the “Recognition rules”, we had some ideas about our topics and the theory that we wanted to use, but we were not able to explain our understanding. However, we answered Ian’s questions last night, so it could clarifies a new level of our comprehension development, “Passive realisation”. I assumed, we were asked to answer four questions without any props because it probably shows we are not comfortable with our knowledge. After these two stages, now we should make a draft of our proposal for the following session and next two weeks would be “Active realisation” of our assignments, and as we know we will have a presentation, it means explaining our knowledge for other students without “prompting” in an “appropriate way” (Robertson, 2008).

What do you think? Am I right?

All the best,

Samaneh

Concise title for the topic.......... Hmmm...

Last nights discussion highlighted the importance of knowing exactly what you are going to do. (In a nutshell)
Needless to say, condensing my title of Should a literacy and numeracy tool in VET sector meet the needs of all key stakeholders high on the priority list.
It seems that all were able to justify their choice of topic and what a variety of contemporary issues in education there were!
Shakespeare,human development in society, indigenous education to learning Chinese and IT. As for Post-modernism - What a challenge!
By next blog posting I aim to have trialled a perspective/framework,
KT

Apple's Topic

Sorry for my last posting.. I had read quite a lot of research, it seems information overloaded!! So, kept jumping in an out of my square in order to have different prospective and not over look/analysed my question!!

My topic is 'Student performance at later stage of music education in Malaysia, affected by teacher quality at early stage of foundation building.' I know it is a little bit too long, I am working through it, and hopefully it will get sorted out by tonight. Well, my argument is foundation studies (Early stage - before secondary) is very important for the preparation of future studies. Without a strong foundation student would not be able to possess further studies with concrete foundation. Teacher's quality does affect the foundation built during the early stage. Does that make sense?

So, I will have a mixture of all theories.
Current available youngest graduates in music education
- Bolman & Deal Theory (Along with supported statistics)

Recent change of music education structure
- Bernstein theory (inequality of class)
- More music courses available in HE (Better future? language problems)
- Music education in primary and secondary school (inequality of class)

The affect to student performance
- Activity Theory (Demand and supply)

I think my topic is too broad to fit in 2,500 words. Any suggestion?

Apple

Michele's Contribution

Hi Everyone!
(Fingers crossed this will work)
I must apologise for being MIA (Missing In Action), as luck would have it, I’ve been sick! I’ve been told it will take a few years to build up a decent immunity against the constant bombardment of illnesses in your average classrooms.
There has been a lot of interesting post thus far and I surmise (and am very relieved) that we are able to take what we like from various perspectives and frameworks in order to make sense of our issues. Indeed we can use these frameworks to throw light in areas we perhaps wouldn’t have explored if we were merely to research a topic.
I am very interested in Indigenous Education. I was planning to use Activity theory because I question whether various subjects and stakeholders have the same objectives and outcomes and I find the model of thinking provided in this theory very useful and clear in defining the issue from different points of view. However, Bernstein’s ideas of classification and framing are also an important perspective in terms of Indigenous Education and looking at power relations and control cannot be ignored. I believe the underlying factors in this issue are those of who holds and has power and control and even perhaps, who should have power and control.
I am looking forward to tonight’s session!

Why teach this bloke?

After much agonising I have changed my topic. My topic will now be:

SFX: Drum roll

Why teach this bloke?

William Shakespeare - circa 1564-1616

Bernstein and his pedagogic discourses are a great tool to analyse this issue as they can be used to explore how the language of the classroom (and the language of Shakespeare) can affect learners’ acquisition of meaning.
For example in coding a number of students need to decode the contextual language of the class room as well as decoding the language of Shakespeare. And in addition Bernstein’s pacing and sequencing rules bring up questions such as; is this the right time to teach this content; are the students ready for the content and if not how are they going to catch up;

Whilst the language of Shakespeare alone is a good issue, I think that Bernstein is very limited in terms of focusing on the communication used in teaching and the intended goals/products of the teaching.

Most of my reading has been on Bernstein and Activity Theory (which to me also has a focus on goal/product) – I agree with Ahmet that there are a number of similarities between the two, and that they can work together. What I need is another analytical theory which can either:
1. throw away assumptions such as ‘Shakespeare is a classic’
2. analyse how Shakespeare is actually taught.

To do “1” enter stage left: Postmodern Critical Theory – however first I need to do some more reading.

“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me”

William Shakespeare “King Richard II”, Act V, scene 5, line 49

Justine's first blog

After waiting for a while the internet connection at my place is finally recovered, and now I am able to write my first blog (*sigh*). Reading through the other posts, I'm agree with what Nagam said regarding the Activity Theory and Bernstein's Theory. I myself think that I can use these two theories to analyse my topic. I have two topics in mind and currently am not sure of which one should I choose. The first topic is about the importance of providing Human Development and Society subject in the scope of sex education, in Indonesia. This topic is listed in Indonesian educational issues 'hit list' at the moment. The second topic is about the importance of undertaking or tackling students with behavioral problem. These two topics is focusing more to junior high school students. Could you please give me some idea, which one of these two topics should I choose? Thank you =]

Major research paradigms/pedagogic device

Ians Youtube resources worth exploring.
Can access via wiki
Easy to follow and view.
Paradigms -positivist,interpretive,critical & post-modernism.
AND
Intro to Bernstein's Sociological Theory of Pedagogy paper consolidated last Tuesdays session for me too.
KT

Theory and practice!

Hi all,
Many parents/students complain that children have to learn a lot in today school. They have pressure to achieve what their parents wish them to achieve. Children have less time to play as children did in the past. Therefore, the issue i am interested is combining "education" and "entertainment" in Primary learning and teaching. My topic is "fun learning for children". Now, i gonna choose the suitable theory to analyze it. I find these three theories are in an alignment. One theory is interacted with another. With my topic, i think three of them can be used to analyze :). However, i would like to apply Bernstein's theory in curriculum reform, pedagogic practice and use Activity theory to engage individual learning activity in organizational learning activity. I also apply two above theories to mention about technology in learning through educational online game.
Ly,

update of my approach

I am still working on considerations on how to best approach my review on the government paper that i will attempt to review, (discussion paper on skills reform). As i stated in my first blog, there are many key points that need to be analysed by more than one approach. The reason i have come to this decision is because of the 2 main stakeholders, VET and Industry. If i use the AT approach, I am continuously identifying contradictions that requires Bernsteins theories of approach e.g. Classification & Framing. I am also considering revisiting Bolmen & Deal to use as an analytic tool in regards to the economics relevant to this discussion paper.

KT resources

katie said...
Just got on board after IT hiccups or my lack of know how, so know how some of you late bloggers feel. NOw in, or should I say ON.
Contragulations to original blogger Apple.
Meeting after hours once a week I think this will be a great means of communication for this course participants.
As for issues in education, one does lean towards areas of interest, experience or hot topics, whether it be in a personal or professional capacity.I have chosen to do something on Literacy and Numeracy in the VET sector which is dear to my heart on both spheres.If anyone needs resources on Primary/secondary education I have numerous copies of the Education Times publications,KT

gerard

I am considering a review of a government paper titled 'Securing our future economic prosperity', Discussion Paper on Skills Reform. There are many key points in this paper and i have not as yet decided how to approach it. I am leaning towards activity theory because it would enable me to review this paper in a holistically and efficient way. I am also considering applying Bernstein's ideas on certain key points.

Katies first post/blog

Great to be here and alot of conversations going on judging by the postings and comments attached to which I have added to too.
Thanks for your words of wisdom , pep talk Apple!
There certainly appears to be theories within theories, lots of activities within Activity frameworks.
I have found setting aside time to explore each one individually, rather than a reading session of all covered to date in the one sitting beneficial for understanding so far,
KT

Nagam's first post

Hi all
After the acquaintance of the AT theory and the Bernstein's ideas I think we can say that the activity theory is useful to use in different areas and organizations of education and can apply perfectly, while the Bernstein’s theory (ideas) are more dealing with thinking of what around us and to understanding the reasons and how to reduce the stratification in our society. I think his ideas are to analysis why we are in a different level of education and how the language can affect our ability of learning.
On the other hand I see the Activity Theory is a practical and Bernstein’s theory is a theoretical

Nagam

Ian's reponse

Nagam

It seems to me that your brief analysis is very useful. Have you thought about using either of these approaches?

Ian

Frameworks and theories

Hi everyone,
I just wanna share something with all of you. Bolman's framework, Activity Theory, and Basil Bernstain's one are pretty interrelated, aren't they? I mean they cover almost the same issues( the last one is just a little bit different). However the extra thing in Bolman's framework (in my oppinion) is possibly that it is pretty useful to analyse human factor in detail which is quite important in analysing an issue.
To me, human factor is the key element in analysing an issue as it has direct or indirect effects on other elements surrounding an organization. What i'm trying to say is that no matter what kind of issue you are analysing or from which perspective you are doing this, the thing is how we analyse the interaction between human factor and organization as a whole. In summary, a detailed analysis of human factor( their skills, expectations, knowledge, abilities...so on) is one of the priorites.
Thanks.......a lot :)

Issues

hi

Computers

Hi All,

I am having one of those weeks when all forms of technology do not appear to work - even good-old-Blogger has been eating my comments and subtracting them from the blogosphere.

I have also been wondering what issue to focus on, and I think that I have finally decided on “engagement in the middle years of schooling”. In the future I would like to teach in the middle years and I believe that this topic will be beneficial for me.

Now to find some tools to analise it. Hmmm. Quick question - any preferences on UK vs US spellings?

hey everyone

hey guy!

I've known the word "blog" six or seven years ago; but it is my first time to use it tonight, as i am always such as person who does not like trying something new..........

I strongly agree with Ly, as i feel what we've learnt from this course during the past three weeks (both Bolman and Deal's frames and Activity theory) are business-oriented(please excuse me if i don't use a proper word here). However, the topic which i am planning to do for the first assignment is about "Chinese language teaching and learning"; i find it is very hard to connect the theories i learnt to my assignment. Therefore, i am thinking about changing my topic now........^0^


regards
Dan Xue Lu

Finally I am on board

Hi all,

Finally I am on board!! I realised that a lot of the classmates are confused in choosing the most applicable theory(s) which could fit to individual topic.

From my experience, I think it is important to find out the topic which you are interested the most for the assignment and understand your topic. Please bear in mind; there are chances of changing your topic!! At the mean time, try to understand those theories delivered in class and related articles/ journal. These theories can be confusing, as it maybe a new language and ‘jargon’. Then decide which theory(s) can fit in your topic perfectly!! So, relax and don’t worry too much; I believe we will help each other through out the semester!! Besides, give yourself some confident, 'we can do it'.

P/s: Ian please corrects me if I am wrong!!

Apple

The Activity Theory!

Hi all,
It sounds easy to know about the contemporary issues in education by updating newspapers, television, radio,... However, when i started learning this subject, i found it not easy at all for me to analyze assumptions or have a perceptive judgment about the current issues in our field.
We have learnt about the Four-Frame Model of Bolman and the Activity Theory. I found myself confused to apply the Four-Frame Model to analyze the educational issues. I also do not know which benefits this model will bring to my understanding about educational issues. It is more practical to learn about the Activity Theory on last Tuesday. We can use this theory to solve somethings which will occur at the individual or organizational level. I would like to give an example for using this theory in my school- a Primary school.
Activity: visual learning in primary school
Object(ive): for children to understand the lesson easily
Subjects: Teachers, learners
Tools: visual materials or teaching aids (Powerpoint, pictures, real materials)
Rules and regulations: suitable materials (we cant bring a real dog to class if we gonna teach dog lesson), one teacher to many students, assessment method.
Division of labour: teacher teach students by using visual teaching aids, raise question, answer, explain the lesson while students observe, listen and understand the lesson.
Community: teacher, students in primary school
Outcomes: teacher uses visual materials effectively, enable to control lesson time, achieve lesson objectives. Student can understand the lesson easily and can use their understanding in their assessment.
Something above is a part of the Activity Theory System. It is widely used by associating some different activity systems. I would like to receive your comments to contribute my understanding about this subject.
Regards,
Ly

Hello Everyone

Hi,

I just wanted to start as Ian said yesterday, although you may find some misspelling or grammatical errors in my messages till 26 of August.

It is hard for me to talk about the contemporary issues in education and my perception of this course, even though Ian tried to explain what we are going to do during this semester. To be honest, I am really confused with the analytic approaches that we have discussed and the way of using them, but I found the second one easier to understand and few samples that we have worked on it last session made it a bit clear for me. In my opinion the first one was so wide and general and I like to know your ideas or may be your advice about two analytic approaches.

I am going to study Education (Early childhood) next year, so I am interested to choose a topic related to my future major. Actually I could not narrow it till now (I know it is too late). I think a lot of issues are related to tertiary education or it is easier to find news and issues about it. Anyway, I should try and not to be frustrated.

Thanks,
Samaneh

activity theory

Hi everyone,
It is really nice to see almost all of you here. I would like to say something about activity theory. First of all, as a teacher, i found it quite interesting and usefull. The reason being is simply that it can be used for a variety of purposes; from curriculum design (i'm really interested in this dimension) to problem analysis. Because of this reason, i would like to use this theory in my first assignment.
i ahve an article for the first assignment which is about using internet in teaching-learning process. This is the area i'm really interested in. With the help of the activity theory, i think i will be bale to analyse this issue.
Anyway, i need to prepare the first draft for the next session. see u.....

hi

I just wanna say 'hiiii' to everyone....... :)

Welcome

Hi to the Contemporary Issues in Education blog. This is a space where you can make your contributions to discussions.

The blog will remain open from 5 August to 26 August. During this time, you are expected to submit a minimum of five meaningful contributions of at least 100 words.

The focus of these conversations should be onthe potential of perspectives and frameworks that might be used to analyse a contemporary issue.

Your contributions may either be a response to something that someone else has said, to answer questions, clarify misinterpretations etc. Or, you might like to make a contribution that starts a conversation. You might pose some possibilities, questions, issues of concern for others to address.

A word of advice!!!!

Don't procrastinate, just do it, don't worry too much about spelling or grammatical errors. As long as others can understand what you are saying, that is the important thing. The longer you put it off, the harder it is to get started.

Good luck.

Ian