Stephen Newman

Maria Montessori’s work remains popular and influential around the world. She provided fascinating descriptions of her observations of children’s learning. Yet at the heart of her work is a lacuna: the issue of how children learn their first language. For Montessori, it was a marvel, a miracle—but a mystery. We argue that the later philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein offers a way forward. With the clearer view offered by Wittgenstein’s reminders, we propose that Montessori’s work can be reevaluated to better understand Montessori’s contribution, child development and, in particular, how children acquire a first language.

One man’s vision is another man’s déjà vu.Edgar Stones, Quality Teaching, 310Since its inception by its founding editor Edgar Stones, in 1975, the Journal of Education for Teaching (formerly known ...

The work of Vygotsky is widely used in teacher education and other education-related literature, in discussion of sociocultural perspectives, and in relation to themes such as second language acquisition, the teaching of mathematics, and approaches to teaching and learning. Much of this work gives the impression that Vygotsky’s work is unproblematic. This paper challenges that view. It is argued that Vygotsky’s descriptions of learning and teaching draw on sociocultural themes but that the theoretical account he proposed to explain those descriptions is disputable. The possible implications for thinking about child development, learning, teaching, and teacher education are then considered.

This paper examines the impact and implications on initial teacher education (ITE) of the crisis brought about by the Covid-19 lockdown of schools and universities from the perspectives of four university providers in England. The start of the pandemic meant that, in England, schools were closed to all but vulnerable pupils and the children of ‘key workers’, and so the normal placements of students in teacher education (ITE students) could not continue. The ‘virtualisation’ of the ITE programmes by, in some cases, both schools and universities, raised significant issues of both equity and pedagogy. The loss of time on school placement had the effect of lost opportunities for practising teaching but increasing the time for reading and reflection. We consider the effects on a teacher education programme when the practicum experience is abruptly curtailed, yet the programme is able to continue in a different way. We present a model framework for a new digital pedagogy for ITE and discuss the opportunities and affordances available as the post-Covid educational landscape emerges, and suggest that the Covid-19 crisis provides an opportunity to reflect on the idea that practicum experience may be a necessary but not, in itself, a sufficient condition for teacher learning.

Arguably the notion of the school leader as the all-important person in school improvement in England still holds sway, despite the development of a huge range of leadership theories and perspectives which suggest a broader contextual approach may be appropriate. Reflecting on the development of a MA course in leadership and management, this paper argues that a philosophical approach based on the later work of Wittgenstein is helpful. The starting point for the approach used here is Wittgenstein’s notion of language-games, which gives recognition to the many different views, descriptions, definitions, and theories of leadership. Informed by Wittgenstein’s wider argument, it develops by bringing in the notions of family resemblance, social rules, and forms of life to suggest that Wittgenstein’s account of meaning is able to move us toward a better understanding of the range of views about school leadership.

Philpott (2014) considered experiential learning and the reflective practitioner and drew attention to the work of Schön to ask how Schön’s model of professional learning might help develop practitioners’ critical understandings, what the limitations might be, and what might be the implications for initial teacher education. Philpott suggested that Schön sought to develop a view that “emphasises the importance of personally generated, contextually specific solutions to ever-changing circumstances” (p. 9). Philpott was worried that such ‘personal knowledge’ might be restrictive, that Schön’s account is “arguably over reliant on considering learners as decontextualised individuals” (p. 13), and that it pays insufficient attention to the “social aspects of professional learning” (p. 13). This chapter critically interrogates Schön’s account and addresses Philpott’s concerns. It is argued that, whilst Schön offers some interesting descriptions of practice in his case studies, the analysis that he gives of them is flawed and that Schön’s account cannot be accepted without qualification. An alternative perspective using the later work of Wittgenstein is considered, to draw out the implications for the organisation and practices of teacher education both pre-service, as posited by Philpott, and in-service. Philpott’s conceptualisation is itself reinterpreted to address the so-called ‘theory-practice gap’, which he characterised in terms of ‘supply-side and demand-side learning’. The implications for a new understanding of reflection for teachers’ learning and teacher education are considered.