Theoretical and political perspectives on the nature of professionalism in teaching are abundant, but little is known about the views of teachers themselves. We asked primary and secondary school teachers in England what teacher professionalism means to them. We explored what teachers think about professionalism, on what dimensions their thinking varies, and how much it varies. We researched how successful the government had already been, and how successful it would be in the future, in changing teachers’ conceptions of professionalism. Two large‐scale national surveys were conducted, with a longitudinal element. We found that teachers’ thinking about their professionalism may be construed as consisting of an inner core of strong, shared beliefs and commitments; an intermediate set of coherent but contested components of professionalism; and an outer layer of disparate elements which are generally highly disputed and which remain unintegrated into broader ways of thinking.
This exploratory study set out to investigate how a group of children, who were identified as underachieving in school, constructed understandings of themselves as learners inside and outside school. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and image-based methods with the children. Interviews were also conducted with their parents and teachers. Findings of this study highlight the centrality of the children's relational world and the richness of their learning experiences and capacity for learning outside school. Significant differences were evident in their descriptions of learning processes inside the classroom and outside the formal school setting. Outside school learning experiences, both structured and less formalised were perceived by the children as being more active, collaborative and challenging. Knowledge and understanding in these contexts seemed to be located within the children. In contrast, learning inside school was characterised by dependence on the teacher. Knowledge and understanding in this context appeared to be located within the teacher.
A new instrument for measuring the mechanical properties of the cell surface is described. It consists of a micropipette connected to a moveable reservoir of water. The tip of the pipette is brought up to a cell and a bulge sucked out of the surface by lowering the reservoir. A plot of deformation (i.e. degree of bulging) against negative hydrostatic pressure gives a straight line for the sea-urchin egg at all stages. We have called the slope of this line the ‘stiffness ‘of the cell membrane ; it varies with the stage of the egg, the size of the pipette and the speed at which readings are taken. A comparison of the straight-line plots actually obtained with the curves to be expected from pure surface tension or from a thin-walled elastic sphere, leaves no doubt that the cell membrane is not behaving like either of these systems. It is concluded that the membrane is sufficiently thick to resist deformation by virtue of its own rigidity, resembling therefore a tennis ball rather than a rubber balloon or a fluid drop. An analysis of the problem in terms of a thick membrane is mathematically intractable, and is only possible by means of models. Experiments, using a large-scale pipette to suck bulges out of rubber balls, show that over a considerable range of wall thicknesses, the pressure-deformation curves are in fact linear. It is shown that the slope of the pressure-deformation curve or ‘stiffness’ depends on Young’s modulus and the internal pressure. It is not possible to separate these two variables by direct means. A dimensional analysis shows that it is permissible to scale down from model experiments to arrive at Young’s modulus and the internal pressure of the cell. For any given value of ‘stiffness’ there is a series of solutions, with values for the modulus decreasing from a certain figure, and values for the internal pressure increasing from nil. A limit can, however, be set to this series by other measurements.
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