Gry cyfrowe wkraczają do kanonu lektur szkolnych (Recenzja: „This War of Mine”, prod. 11 bit studios, 2014)

This War of Mine, a critically acclaimed game by 11 bit studios, is the first game to be on the list of supplementary school readings in Poland. The game released in 2014 is an anti-war narrative built around the story of a group of civilians trying to survive the war in Pogoren, city based on wartorn Sarajevo. The game is unique in its mechanics as well as in its serious treatment of death and suffering, but can also be played for pleasure and in that matter is not moralistic, but entertaining. It is an ideal game to offer young people, both as a means of developing their sensitivity and as an encouragement to seek pleasure in experiencing narratives. However, it also fits with other school readings on the cruelty of war, and thus there is a risk it will be used as other texts have been — as a story to make teenagers think about war as a formative experience which makes one a true Pole.

Mediating the Learning of a Student with Dyslexia in a Greek Supplementary School in the UK

This paper’s aim was to investigate a second language teacher’s beliefs about teaching and learning and her practices in relation to a student with dyslexia from a sociocultural perspective. It first referred to studies on teachers’ beliefs and practices, then the concepts of mediation, scaffolding and zone of proximal development were defined and studies on mediation and scaffolding were reviewed. Τhe data from the interview with the teacher and the classroom observations were analyzed and compared. The study illustrated that the teacher’s practices were not always consistent with her beliefs of how students with dyslexia learn better. Her teaching practice did not always have a theoretical concept behind it either. The observation of her lessons demonstrated though an effective use of multisensory methods, actions, objects and scaffolding to mediate a student’s with dyslexia learning. In the end of the chapter suggestions for teachers of students with dyslexia in similar settings are given based on the data.

Black supplementary school leaders: Community leadership strategies for successful schools

Long established in the United Kingdom, Black supplementary schools are valued by Black parents for their ability to nurture the academic potential of Black students and achieve positive educational outcomes where mainstream schools sometimes fail. Through exploratory qualitative interviews conducted with a small group of African-Caribbean supplementary school leaders, this article seeks to understand Black supplementary school leaders’ perceptions of educational leadership and supplementary school success. Utilising Yosso’s perspective on ‘community cultural wealth’, in particular the ways in which Black communities provide and are rich in cultural/educational resources, the article examines the extent to which the leadership perceptions of Black supplementary school leaders are rooted in notions of community and serving, along with the leadership strategies they employ in creating successful schools. Such insights are especially important at a time when mainstream education continues to deliver poor educational outcomes for Black students.

The impact of teacher entrepreneurial behaviour: a timely investigation of an emerging phenomenon

PurposeThis study aims to understand of the role that teacher entrepreneurial behavior plays in developing teacher professional capital. The extant concepts around school leadership mostly encompass the transformative and instructional roles of school leaders in managing, mobilizing and supporting teachers for student achievement. However, school leadership has not focused strongly on promoting innovation and risk-taking for schools in a knowledge economy. As a timely promising response to the increasingly demanding and competitive school context, teacher entrepreneurial behaviour (TEB), which emphasizes teachers' willingness to take risks and be daring, has started to gain recognition in the school leadership literature, yet a nuanced understanding of TEB's potential impacts on schools is lacking.Design/methodology/approachBased on a combined consideration of institutionalized recognition and expert judgement, this study identified three innovative entrepreneurial teachers/teacher groups that had won the most competitive teaching award in Hong Kong. Employing a multiple-site case study design, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 informants and collected supplementary school documents and records.FindingsThis study found that TEB enables the implementation of innovation and promotes cross-subject alignment. It cultivates trusting and coherent relationships among teachers. Teachers with TEB scaled up innovation among other teachers. Furthermore, entrepreneurial teachers enhance school attractiveness by creating competitive advantages.Originality/valueThis analysis showed that TEB enables formal and informal school leaders to bring forth critical school outcomes. This study elaborates how TEB enhances teachers' professional capital through building trusting and coherent relationships. It also adds to the research on school innovation by demonstrating that TEB fosters teachers' capacity for bottom-up innovation in the community.

Polish supplementary schools in Great Britain: a case study of the Polish School of Manchester

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the results of a small-scale pilot study of attitudes towards Polish and English conducted at a Polish supplementary school in Manchester, England. The intro-ductory part of the paper presents definitions of bilingualism and bilingual education as well as a variety of approaches and policies concerning bilingual education in the world. This is followed by some basic data on Polish immigrants living in the UK and Polish supplementary schools in the UK. The questionnaire used to elicit the data consists of two sets of questions: one concerns Polish and the other English. The questions and the answers elicited are discussed and compared, with the final concluding part focused on attitudes to Polish, which is the native language of the informants’ families.

The Relationships Between the Accuracy of Self-Evaluation, Kanji Proficiency and the Learning Environment for Adolescent Japanese Heritage Language Learners

This paper focuses on Japanese heritage language (JHL) learners in an Australian context. The paper reports on a research project in a hoshuu-koo institution, a Japanese supplementary school, and explores the experiences of a group of Year 7 students. This study was initiated by identifying to what extent JHL learners can recognise their own skills, especially in proficiency in kanji, one of the Japanese scripts. It was predicted that several elements could relate to the accuracy of self-evaluation. By exploring levels of self-evaluation skills and the elements concerned in Japanese learning, the aim of the research was to help develop differentiated curriculum in the future. Data were based on student performance on kanji tests and answers to questionnaires, and the Excel Correl Function was used to calculate correlation coefficients. Graphs were also used to analyse the data. It was found that students who had relatively high kanji proficiency, especially in higher year levels, recognised their own skills but an overall overestimation was found amongst other students. Specific areas of kanji learning, such as okurigana and radicals, were identified as areas that need to be enhanced for appropriate self-evaluation for most of the students. Learning environment related to evaluation skills was also identified. Concluding comments centre on implications for further teaching approaches and research on the enhancement of kanji self-evaluation skills.