The case for a sub-element ‘measuring matter’ within the Australian national numeracy learning progression

Australia has a National Numeracy Learning Progression (NNLP) that is strongly aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. This article examines how a sub-element within this progression could be impacting students’ learning of Science. This sub-element is firmly based on Mathematics education research as to how students build their understanding of geometric measurement (the structure of length, area and volume). Mathematics educators subsequently researched children’s measurement of mass and included it within the same sub-element of the NNLP. The contexts in which mass and volume are measured in Mathematics are different to those used in teaching Science. This article presents two studies that used variation theory and task-based interviews of children in Years 5 and 6, to explore their thinking about mass and volume in a Science context. The findings suggest that mathematical constructs in geometric measurement could be constraining the development of scientific ideas about matter. This research has implications for furthering the development of the NNLP to encompass scientific aspects of measuring matter.

Music Teachers’ Communication Ways Helping Preschool Children to Engage with Learning Objects and to Explore their Critical Aspects

This article aims to reveal the variation-theory-grounded ways that music teachers use to communicate with pre-school children and direct their attention to learning objects (sounds of music) and the critical aspects of learning objects (music sound qualities) while listening to music. Variation theory is a novel didactic approach in the musical education of pre-school children. A learning study based on the theory of variation as a phenomenographic approach and a strategy for a lesson study as a form of participatory action research were employed. While conducting the empirical research, attempts were made to identify the ways in which music teachers communicate with children, which are grounded in variation theory and direct children’s attention to learning objects and their critical aspects. The research distinguishes two groups of ways of music teacher communication that encourage children to listen to music: music teacher communication that directs children’s attention to feeling, understanding and discerning the learning object, i. e., sounds of music (group one) and the critical aspects of learning objects, e. g., pitch, duration of music (group two). These ways that apply variation theory are new and enrich the didactics of early music education.

The epistemological commitments of modes: opportunities and challenges for science learning

Meaning making in science is supported by different modes, such as spoken and written language, images and gestures, all of which have different affordances. The epistemological commitments of modes are affordances that cannot be avoided. This article investigates how the epistemological commitments of modes affect possibilities for learning. Video data was collected from a learning activity where upper secondary students drew and explained an experiment representing the greenhouse effect. The analysis uses the variation theory of learning, which assumes that students learn when they notice new aspects of objects of learning by experiencing variation against an invariant background. Such variation can be created through the representations used. Findings show that, in the learning activity, variation was created in a range of modes. Some of the variation, particularly with regards to radiation, was due to the epistemological commitments of drawing. However, these aspects of radiation went unnoticed by the students, possibly because several aspects varied simultaneously. The teacher then helped the students to become aware of certain variation. Implications for the teaching and learning of science when taking the epistemological commitment of different modes into consideration include both challenges, such as when unintended variation is created, and opportunities, such as when spontaneously occurring variation can be taken up for discussion.

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Language Learning

This is a case study using an interactive digital game to teach grammar via Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). The interactive game via MALL is aimed to ease TESL students' fear and trigger their interest in learning grammar. The game uses the Theory of Variation (Marton & Booth) to design the grammar exercises in the game. A survey questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were administered to gauge the students’ perceptions of using the game. The findings show that the game has somewhat improved students’ grammar knowledge. Keywords: Digital board game; Grammar; Mobile Assisted Language Learning; Variation theory eISSN 2514-7528 © 2021 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA CE-Bs by E-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians / Africans / Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/jabs.v6i19.391

Lesson study as a way of improving school-day navigation for pupils with severe intellectual disability and autism

PurposeThis research explores lesson study as a way to enhance the quality of teaching for pupils with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder by observing changes to one pupil's (Wilma) active educational participation. The study also investigates if and in what ways the professional development impacted teaching practices.Design/methodology/approachFive teachers met with the author on four occasions. Between these meetings, the teachers delivered the lessons they had planned together. The author video recorded the meetings to discern how the teachers' expressions developed. The author shared their thoughts with another researcher to enable an interrater validity examination.FindingsThe implementation of the lesson study vehicle enabled the teachers to transform their thinking from mainly focusing on pupils' deficiencies to instead focusing on their strengths. A relationship was found between teachers' understanding of central coherence, their skills in adapting received instructions and pupils' abilities to process and contextualize information or discern the whole picture.Research limitations/implicationsResearch that involves teachers in the learning process emphasizes the relation between teachers’ thinking and their potential to enable the contextualized inclusion of pupils with learning disabilities.Originality/valueThis research offers important insights into how school-day navigation for pupils with severe intellectual disability and autism can be understood through the lens of variation theory; the teachers' repeated and adjusted use of the frame on the schedule strip enabled Wilma to discern what would happen next during the school day.

Revisiting the Idea of Learner-Centered Pedagogy: The Theoretical Perspective

Over the years, three common theoretical perspectives dominated the practices of learner-centered pedagogy (LCP) across the world. These perspectives include constructivism, humanism, and transformative theoretical traditions. This article critically examines the contributions and weaknesses of these theoretical traditions as ways of conceptualizing how learning occurs. Then, the researcher revisited the idea of “learner-centered pedagogy” in a new theoretical strand that strives to engage learners in discerning critical aspects of the object of learning. Therefore, it is argued that the new theoretical strand, the variation theory, makes a powerful contribution to LCP practices in bringing about student learning.

Defining Understanding

Promoting student understanding of biological concepts is a key part of biology education, and the ability to “understand” a concept forms one of the six categories of the oft-used Bloom’s Taxonomy. Despite this, there remains no consensus as to what it means to understand a concept. While several formal definitions have been offered, we investigated how biology instructors and biology education researchers define the term and how they perceived the skill sets needed for a student to understand a concept in the context of assessments. We found that there was no agreement on the definition of understanding, and that responses differed in the cognitive level required to reach “understanding” of a concept. We discuss these findings in the context of Bloom’s Taxonomy and variation theory and provide directions for future inquiries. We conclude by discussing implications for biology instructors and the importance of explicitly conveying expectations to better align student and instructor expectations.