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JOURNAL OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2001

Contents

Articles

Towards Designing an Intercultural Curriculum: A Case Study from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua
Patricia Daniel

Constructing Portfolios Together: Promoting Student/Faculty Metacognition
Sonya Corbin Dwyer and Donna Patterson

Survival Kit or Lessons for Life? Future Directions for Preservice Teacher Education from the Perceptions of Newer Teachers
Larry Glassford, Noel Hurley and Colin Ball

Computer Skill Requirements for New and Existing Teachers: Implications for Policy and Practice
Craig Montgomerie and Valerie Irvine


Book Reviews

Bernie Krynowsky
Models of Classroom Management: Principles, Practices, and Critical Considerations
by J. Martin, J. Sugarman and J. McNamara

Bruce L. Mann
Classrooms with a Difference: Facilitating Learning on the Information Highway, (2nded),
by Elizabeth J. Burge and Judith M. Roberts

Janet Flewelling
Virtual Instruction: Issues and Insights from an International Perspective
by Carine Feyten and Joyce Nutta

John P. Anchan
Compressed Video Learning: Creating Active Learners
by J. M. Roberts

Laurie Bizero
Critical Challenges for Primary Students
by Tami McDiarmid, Rita Manzo and Irish Musselle



Towards Designing an Intercultural Curriculum: A Case Study from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

Patricia Daniel
University of Wolverhampton, UK


Abstract

One of the challenges still to be met in the 21st century is that of genuinely embracing diversity. How can education help to overcome the barriers that continue to exist between people on the basis of language, culture and gender? This case study takes the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua as an example of a multilingual/multiethnic region and examines how the community university URACCAN is contributing to the development of interculturality. It describes participatory research that was carried out with university staff and students with the intention of defining an intercultural curriculum and appropriate strategies for delivering such. One model used as a basis for discussions was the Model for Community Understanding from the Wales Curriculum Council, which emphasises the belonging of the individual to different communities or cultures at the same time. Factors supporting the development of an intercultural curriculum include the university's close involvement with the ethnic communities it serves. However, ethno-linguistic power relations within the region and the country as a whole, still militate against egalitarianism within the university. The research highlights the importance of participatory pedagogy as the basis for promoting interculturality and achieving lasting social transformation.


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Constructing Portfolios Together: Promoting Student/Faculty Metacognition

Sonya Corbin Dwyer and Donna Patterson
University of Regina

Abstract

This article is intended both to share the authors' experiences using portfolios as a teaching and evaluative tool in post-secondary under­graduate educational psychology courses, and to act as a means of reflecting on their own teaching. Their work arises out of a desire to find better ways of assessing both their students, and their own performance, as well as to deal conceptually with assessment. What they recount here are their struggles and successes in modeling an alternative assessment technique with their students, while also using the same technique as a tool for self-examination of their own practice. Much of the article is presented in a unique voice/countervoice format.


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Survival Kit or Lessons for Life? Future Directions for Preservice Teacher Education from the Perceptions of Newer Teachers

Larry Glassford, Noel Hurleyand and Colin Ball
University of Windsor



Abstract

Recent literature, supported by a survey of secondary school teachers in southwestern Ontario, Canada, indicates that preservice teacher education does not adequately prepare graduating teacher candidates to thrive in a profession that is ironically, driven by change.. Attempts at reform have focused on the basic aspects of the typical preservice program: foundations, curriculum methods and field experience. The results have been decidedly discouraging_ Positive improvement will hinge both on a recognition by teacher-education institutions, of the inevitable compromise between short-term necessity and long-term vision, and on their willingness to implement, carefully and constructively, promising innova­tions such as action research and centers of pedagogy.


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Computer Skill Requirements for New and Existing Teachers: Implications for Policy and Practice

Craig Montgomerie and Valerie Irvine
University of Alberta

Abstract
The integration of technology into the classroom is a major issue in education today. Many national and provincial initiatives specify the technology skills that students must demonstrate at each grade level. The Government of the Province of Alberta in Canada, has mandated the implementation of a new curriculum which began in September of 2000, called Information and Communication Technology. This curriculum is infused within core courses and specifies what students are "expected to know, be able to do, and be like with respect to technology" (Alberta Learning, 2000). Since teachers are required to implement this new curriculum, school jurisdictions are turning to professional development strategies and hiring standards to upgrade teachers' computer skills to meet this goal. This paper summarizes the results of a telephone survey administered to all public school jurisdictions in the Province of Alberta with a 100% response rate. We examined the computer skills that school jurisdictions require of newly hired teachers, and the support strategies employed for currently employed teachers.



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