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Papers by Donald Gray

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form ... more All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Journal of Education for Teaching, 2018

Against a rapidly changing policy landscape for teacher education, exacerbated by 'Brexit' in the... more Against a rapidly changing policy landscape for teacher education, exacerbated by 'Brexit' in the UK, we present findings from an electronic survey of 272 teacher educators in England, Ireland and Scotland about their experiences of, and priorities for, professional learning. While the data generated were mainly quantitative data, qualitative features were embedded within the survey design. Both types of data have been used to draw out complexities that emerge when exploring a professional group of educators responsible for the preparation of a future generation of teachers. The findings are presented and discussed in relation to the professional demographics of the sample, research expectations placed on them and teacher educators' priorities for professional learning. Given the unique occupational position of teacher educators, their importance in the quality of teacher education and the lack of formal focus on their professional development, our starting point for teacher educators' professional development lies in their practice situated and positioned within global, regional, national and local policy contexts.

Environmental Education Research, 2018

There is growing global awareness of the importance of what are often labelled as 'natural enviro... more There is growing global awareness of the importance of what are often labelled as 'natural environments' for human health, well-being and cognitive development. However, fostering learning in such 'natural environments', as they may be differently experienced and understood, requires a review of theoretical and practical approaches in teacher education, foregrounding the sensorial, experiential, embodied and relational dimensions of learning processes. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study on the experiences of a group of first year undergraduate student teachers enrolled in a newly introduced course on outdoor learning. Adopting a pragmatic and enactivist mixed methods approach, the study provides evidence of impact of the course on the students. Specifically, the study contributes a qualitative description of student teachers' learning trajectories, featuring what students deemed to be significant moments of an emerging ecological awareness. Findings point to important implications for curriculum and pedagogy, promoting environmental consciousness in formal teacher education contexts.

Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education through Creative Pedagogies ... more Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education through Creative Pedagogies for 21st Century Learning: how can school curricula be broadened towards a more responsive, dynamic and inclusive form of education? Globally, the term STEAM is used to indicate ways in which the Arts or art-practices (and sometimes more broadly the Humanities and Social sciences) engage with the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The number of students choosing post-compulsory study of STEM subjects is seen as being critical to a country’s economic success, yet concerns have been expressed about the way those subjects are currently taught, specifically: a lack of creativity; a need to focus on inter- and multidisciplinary work; a need for a broader conception of science, and STEM’s marginalisation of concerns for society and the environment. Populist accounts may argue for having more creatively-minded scientists, and a more scientifically literate wider ...

International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 2018

Purpose Mentoring is widely recognised as an effective strategy for supporting the professional l... more Purpose Mentoring is widely recognised as an effective strategy for supporting the professional learning of teachers and student teachers across different educational contexts. Yet, its effectiveness in initial teacher education (ITE) may be more widely conceived to take account of mentoring as a cultural practice, contributing to a change of professional learning habits and relationships towards collegiate and collaborative reflexivity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of mentoring experiences between teachers and student teachers, how these are embedded within the established professional learning culture of the school and the opportunities for mentoring to affect professional learning. Design/methodology/approach Set within the context of a teacher education reform project in Scotland, involving student teachers, mentors and university tutors, the study adopted a critical constructivist theory stance to explore mentoring relationships. A sequential mixed methods...

In 1990 a gathering of ecopsychologists took place at the Harvard Centre for Psychology and Socia... more In 1990 a gathering of ecopsychologists took place at the Harvard Centre for Psychology and Social Change to participate in a conference entitled “Psychology as if the Whole Earth Mattered”. They concluded that “if the self is expanded to include the natural world, behavior leading to destruction of this world will be experienced as self-destruction” (Roszak, Gomes, & Kanner, 1995). I take this idea into the realm of science and science education which I suggest requires a reconfiguration and extension of science into a new inter- and trans-disciplinary realm of sustainability science with implications for renewed pedagogies of science in schools and universities. Such a changing perspective requires greater vision, creativity and imaginative approaches to address the problems currently facing the planet and the future of humanity. This paper provides an overview of a journey in science education over the years covering a range of views around science: starting from what we might c...

Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts, 2018

This chapter proposes that there is a need to examine childhoodnature experiences and the way in ... more This chapter proposes that there is a need to examine childhoodnature experiences and the way in which these might be influential in shaping an agenda for science and science education in the Anthropocene. A renaturing of science places a much greater emphasis on, and recognition of, the interdependency and relational nature of the natural world in which humans are inextricably embedded and suggests the need for the development of a strong ecological identity (Thomashow, Ecological identity: Becoming a reflective environmentalist. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996). This suggests that there is a need for increased availability of childhoodnature experiences and a focus on the quality of those experiences, as well as the need to explore further lifelong opportunities for developing innate biophilic (Wilson, Biophilia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984) tendencies. The chapter examines the childhoodnature experiences of beginning undergraduate university students and how these influence their current relationship to the natural world. Literature suggests that the strength of a person’s nature relatedness can have an impact on the way they view the natural world and can, subsequently, influence the actions they take toward that natural world. This chapter describes a mixed-methods approach used to examine beginning university students’ childhoodnature experiences and how those experiences may have influenced their sense of nature connectedness. Data gathered indicates that there are statistically significant correlations between childhoodnature experiences and current sense of nature connectedness, although the qualitative data suggests that the form of those experiences may be of critical importance. Evidence from the study presented here suggests that exposure to childhoodnature, while necessary, is not sufficient in itself, and further research is required into the nature and quality of childhoodnature experiences. This concurs with previous studies, e.g., Vadala, Bixler, and James (J Environ Educ 39:3–18, 2007), which found that it was the particular qualities of the childhoodnature experience that appeared to play a significant part in shaping future interests, attitudes, and values.

The first Standard Grade'courses have been in place in Scotland for almost ten years. This d... more The first Standard Grade'courses have been in place in Scotland for almost ten years. This document reports on a study with the following goals: (1) to describe the actual mathematical competencies of pupils gaining grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Standard Grade Mathematics; (2) to describe the competencies shown in school work by pupils failing to achieve at least grade 6 in Standard Grade Mathematics; and (3) to identify any changes that.might seem desirable in grade-related criteria which might lead to improvements in the teaching of basic competencies in mathematics. Examination scripts and classroom work of (n=1,188) students in grades 3 to 7 were collected and analyzed. This report discusses the findings in.the following areas: number, measure, relationships, shape, information handling, interpreting a task, doing a task, and completing a task. Significant differences were found between grades 4 and 5 in examination performance. An appendix contains criteria descriptors used in ...

Green Education: An A-to-Z Guide

This paper argues that there is a crucial link between language and sustainability and explores i... more This paper argues that there is a crucial link between language and sustainability and explores in particular how the evolution of certain characteristics and functions of human language are related to it. The emphasis is on how the principal technologies of language speech and writing are related to our ways of being and doing, reflecting on and acting in the world and the consequences of this relationship in terms of the sustainability of our existence. The emergence of writing and its correlation with nominal language are seen as particularly significant developments in how we represent reality and thereby risk following unsustainable

Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food secur... more Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food security (Godfray et al., 2011), with food production located at a critical nexus between land-use, reduced availability of fossil fuels and the urgent need to reduce emissions (Harvey & Pilgrim, 2011). While debates on food security and energy transitions proliferate in the scientific literature, policy discussions continue to focus on technical solutions, "without seriously engaging with the content and social practices of education for sustainable transitions" (Bangay & Blum, 2010, p. 335). In this context, school gardens are receiving renovated attention. Drawing on current drivers in Scottish policy seeking to tackle economic disadvantage and 'close the attainment gap', this project developed as a partnership between a teacher education institution, a non-governmental organisation, a city council planning and infrastructure department, and three primary schools in three...

This paper explores the professional learning needs identified by teacher educators in Higher Edu... more This paper explores the professional learning needs identified by teacher educators in Higher Education Institutions in Scotland, with a particular focus on their “researcherly dispositions” (Tack & Vanderlinde, 2016), and identifies some of the implications for the professional learning of teacher educators more broadly. The Scottish data were part of a wider European wide study conducted by the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development (http://info-ted.eu/), and were drawn from a survey based research (Czerniawski, Guberman and MacPhail, 2016), and follow-up in-depth interviews with university based teacher educators (MacPhail et. al., 2018). The data from 61 questionnaire respondents and 11 interviews revealed recognition of the multi-faceted nature of the role, the self-determined nature of professional learning, the need for support in becoming a teacher educator, and disparity and tensions in being research active despite an expectation, although to varying degrees,...

In thinking about who are the teacher educators, we consider teacher educators in Higher Educatio... more In thinking about who are the teacher educators, we consider teacher educators in Higher Education, teacher educators in the school settings supporting beginning and new teachers, as well as those who span both contexts as part of their professional role. This theme seeks to explore a few key questions in relation to the boundaries that exist and the impact of engaging in practice at or across boundaries. In what ways do boundaries enable or constrain the development and the practice of teacher educators? How do teacher educators navigate the transitions between boundaries? What is the impact of learning at the boundaries in relation to the development of teacher educators?

Evaluation & Research in Education, 2001

The research described here was an attempt to focus on and examine the phenomenon of differential... more The research described here was an attempt to focus on and examine the phenomenon of differential performance on different modes of assessment noticed in the Assessment of Achievement Programme (Science), in Scotland. The research examined the performance of a sample of Primary 6 (10/11 years old) children on two modes of assessment. Comparable tasks were devised in both pencil and paper and more 'practical' formats and children's performance on these tasks analysed. The assessments and procedures used were refined and repeated in a second phase. Results suggest there is evidence that children, particularly lower achievers, perform better on more interactive, practically based tasks than on comparable tasks presented in a purely pencil and paper format. There is also evidence to suggest that there may be gender related differences in performance.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form ... more All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Journal of Education for Teaching, 2018

Against a rapidly changing policy landscape for teacher education, exacerbated by 'Brexit' in the... more Against a rapidly changing policy landscape for teacher education, exacerbated by 'Brexit' in the UK, we present findings from an electronic survey of 272 teacher educators in England, Ireland and Scotland about their experiences of, and priorities for, professional learning. While the data generated were mainly quantitative data, qualitative features were embedded within the survey design. Both types of data have been used to draw out complexities that emerge when exploring a professional group of educators responsible for the preparation of a future generation of teachers. The findings are presented and discussed in relation to the professional demographics of the sample, research expectations placed on them and teacher educators' priorities for professional learning. Given the unique occupational position of teacher educators, their importance in the quality of teacher education and the lack of formal focus on their professional development, our starting point for teacher educators' professional development lies in their practice situated and positioned within global, regional, national and local policy contexts.

Environmental Education Research, 2018

There is growing global awareness of the importance of what are often labelled as 'natural enviro... more There is growing global awareness of the importance of what are often labelled as 'natural environments' for human health, well-being and cognitive development. However, fostering learning in such 'natural environments', as they may be differently experienced and understood, requires a review of theoretical and practical approaches in teacher education, foregrounding the sensorial, experiential, embodied and relational dimensions of learning processes. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study on the experiences of a group of first year undergraduate student teachers enrolled in a newly introduced course on outdoor learning. Adopting a pragmatic and enactivist mixed methods approach, the study provides evidence of impact of the course on the students. Specifically, the study contributes a qualitative description of student teachers' learning trajectories, featuring what students deemed to be significant moments of an emerging ecological awareness. Findings point to important implications for curriculum and pedagogy, promoting environmental consciousness in formal teacher education contexts.

Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education through Creative Pedagogies ... more Reviewing the Potential and Challenges of Developing STEAM Education through Creative Pedagogies for 21st Century Learning: how can school curricula be broadened towards a more responsive, dynamic and inclusive form of education? Globally, the term STEAM is used to indicate ways in which the Arts or art-practices (and sometimes more broadly the Humanities and Social sciences) engage with the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The number of students choosing post-compulsory study of STEM subjects is seen as being critical to a country’s economic success, yet concerns have been expressed about the way those subjects are currently taught, specifically: a lack of creativity; a need to focus on inter- and multidisciplinary work; a need for a broader conception of science, and STEM’s marginalisation of concerns for society and the environment. Populist accounts may argue for having more creatively-minded scientists, and a more scientifically literate wider ...

International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 2018

Purpose Mentoring is widely recognised as an effective strategy for supporting the professional l... more Purpose Mentoring is widely recognised as an effective strategy for supporting the professional learning of teachers and student teachers across different educational contexts. Yet, its effectiveness in initial teacher education (ITE) may be more widely conceived to take account of mentoring as a cultural practice, contributing to a change of professional learning habits and relationships towards collegiate and collaborative reflexivity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of mentoring experiences between teachers and student teachers, how these are embedded within the established professional learning culture of the school and the opportunities for mentoring to affect professional learning. Design/methodology/approach Set within the context of a teacher education reform project in Scotland, involving student teachers, mentors and university tutors, the study adopted a critical constructivist theory stance to explore mentoring relationships. A sequential mixed methods...

In 1990 a gathering of ecopsychologists took place at the Harvard Centre for Psychology and Socia... more In 1990 a gathering of ecopsychologists took place at the Harvard Centre for Psychology and Social Change to participate in a conference entitled “Psychology as if the Whole Earth Mattered”. They concluded that “if the self is expanded to include the natural world, behavior leading to destruction of this world will be experienced as self-destruction” (Roszak, Gomes, & Kanner, 1995). I take this idea into the realm of science and science education which I suggest requires a reconfiguration and extension of science into a new inter- and trans-disciplinary realm of sustainability science with implications for renewed pedagogies of science in schools and universities. Such a changing perspective requires greater vision, creativity and imaginative approaches to address the problems currently facing the planet and the future of humanity. This paper provides an overview of a journey in science education over the years covering a range of views around science: starting from what we might c...

Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts, 2018

This chapter proposes that there is a need to examine childhoodnature experiences and the way in ... more This chapter proposes that there is a need to examine childhoodnature experiences and the way in which these might be influential in shaping an agenda for science and science education in the Anthropocene. A renaturing of science places a much greater emphasis on, and recognition of, the interdependency and relational nature of the natural world in which humans are inextricably embedded and suggests the need for the development of a strong ecological identity (Thomashow, Ecological identity: Becoming a reflective environmentalist. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996). This suggests that there is a need for increased availability of childhoodnature experiences and a focus on the quality of those experiences, as well as the need to explore further lifelong opportunities for developing innate biophilic (Wilson, Biophilia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984) tendencies. The chapter examines the childhoodnature experiences of beginning undergraduate university students and how these influence their current relationship to the natural world. Literature suggests that the strength of a person’s nature relatedness can have an impact on the way they view the natural world and can, subsequently, influence the actions they take toward that natural world. This chapter describes a mixed-methods approach used to examine beginning university students’ childhoodnature experiences and how those experiences may have influenced their sense of nature connectedness. Data gathered indicates that there are statistically significant correlations between childhoodnature experiences and current sense of nature connectedness, although the qualitative data suggests that the form of those experiences may be of critical importance. Evidence from the study presented here suggests that exposure to childhoodnature, while necessary, is not sufficient in itself, and further research is required into the nature and quality of childhoodnature experiences. This concurs with previous studies, e.g., Vadala, Bixler, and James (J Environ Educ 39:3–18, 2007), which found that it was the particular qualities of the childhoodnature experience that appeared to play a significant part in shaping future interests, attitudes, and values.

The first Standard Grade'courses have been in place in Scotland for almost ten years. This d... more The first Standard Grade'courses have been in place in Scotland for almost ten years. This document reports on a study with the following goals: (1) to describe the actual mathematical competencies of pupils gaining grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Standard Grade Mathematics; (2) to describe the competencies shown in school work by pupils failing to achieve at least grade 6 in Standard Grade Mathematics; and (3) to identify any changes that.might seem desirable in grade-related criteria which might lead to improvements in the teaching of basic competencies in mathematics. Examination scripts and classroom work of (n=1,188) students in grades 3 to 7 were collected and analyzed. This report discusses the findings in.the following areas: number, measure, relationships, shape, information handling, interpreting a task, doing a task, and completing a task. Significant differences were found between grades 4 and 5 in examination performance. An appendix contains criteria descriptors used in ...

Green Education: An A-to-Z Guide

This paper argues that there is a crucial link between language and sustainability and explores i... more This paper argues that there is a crucial link between language and sustainability and explores in particular how the evolution of certain characteristics and functions of human language are related to it. The emphasis is on how the principal technologies of language speech and writing are related to our ways of being and doing, reflecting on and acting in the world and the consequences of this relationship in terms of the sustainability of our existence. The emergence of writing and its correlation with nominal language are seen as particularly significant developments in how we represent reality and thereby risk following unsustainable

Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food secur... more Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food security (Godfray et al., 2011), with food production located at a critical nexus between land-use, reduced availability of fossil fuels and the urgent need to reduce emissions (Harvey & Pilgrim, 2011). While debates on food security and energy transitions proliferate in the scientific literature, policy discussions continue to focus on technical solutions, "without seriously engaging with the content and social practices of education for sustainable transitions" (Bangay & Blum, 2010, p. 335). In this context, school gardens are receiving renovated attention. Drawing on current drivers in Scottish policy seeking to tackle economic disadvantage and 'close the attainment gap', this project developed as a partnership between a teacher education institution, a non-governmental organisation, a city council planning and infrastructure department, and three primary schools in three...

This paper explores the professional learning needs identified by teacher educators in Higher Edu... more This paper explores the professional learning needs identified by teacher educators in Higher Education Institutions in Scotland, with a particular focus on their “researcherly dispositions” (Tack & Vanderlinde, 2016), and identifies some of the implications for the professional learning of teacher educators more broadly. The Scottish data were part of a wider European wide study conducted by the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development (http://info-ted.eu/), and were drawn from a survey based research (Czerniawski, Guberman and MacPhail, 2016), and follow-up in-depth interviews with university based teacher educators (MacPhail et. al., 2018). The data from 61 questionnaire respondents and 11 interviews revealed recognition of the multi-faceted nature of the role, the self-determined nature of professional learning, the need for support in becoming a teacher educator, and disparity and tensions in being research active despite an expectation, although to varying degrees,...

In thinking about who are the teacher educators, we consider teacher educators in Higher Educatio... more In thinking about who are the teacher educators, we consider teacher educators in Higher Education, teacher educators in the school settings supporting beginning and new teachers, as well as those who span both contexts as part of their professional role. This theme seeks to explore a few key questions in relation to the boundaries that exist and the impact of engaging in practice at or across boundaries. In what ways do boundaries enable or constrain the development and the practice of teacher educators? How do teacher educators navigate the transitions between boundaries? What is the impact of learning at the boundaries in relation to the development of teacher educators?

Evaluation & Research in Education, 2001

The research described here was an attempt to focus on and examine the phenomenon of differential... more The research described here was an attempt to focus on and examine the phenomenon of differential performance on different modes of assessment noticed in the Assessment of Achievement Programme (Science), in Scotland. The research examined the performance of a sample of Primary 6 (10/11 years old) children on two modes of assessment. Comparable tasks were devised in both pencil and paper and more 'practical' formats and children's performance on these tasks analysed. The assessments and procedures used were refined and repeated in a second phase. Results suggest there is evidence that children, particularly lower achievers, perform better on more interactive, practically based tasks than on comparable tasks presented in a purely pencil and paper format. There is also evidence to suggest that there may be gender related differences in performance.