Judith MacCallum

In this paper we examine an intervention, ‘cooperative marbles in a jar’, as illustrative of Vygotsky’s (1999) method of double stimulation. The intervention was part of a larger longitudinal study conducted with primary aged students which aimed to examine how to develop a collaborative classroom where agency of the teacher and students was valued and supported. The first author was the classroom teacher and the second author the co-researcher/university professor who visited the classroom weekly. The teacher/researcher’s role, as a facilitator and ‘guide on the side’, was to allow students to take responsibility for their learning and develop shared understandings about collaborative values. The classroom social practices, such as the weekly classroom meeting and daily social circle, provided opportunities for students to practise these values and to participate in authentic activities to promote social knowledge and sharing of ideas. The focus was on student decision making about the direction of classroom activities and the creation of possible interventions in the development of a collaborative classroom. During weekly classroom meetings students raised issues about friendships, group work and the physical arrangement of the classroom as well as setting up incentive strategies to promote cooperation. The intervention emerged from the weekly classroom meeting discussions. The first stimulation was the problem students identified of their peers not cooperating in groups. The second stimulation was the tool of marbles in a jar which the students developed through discussions in the classroom meeting. Research data sources included regular reflections by students and researchers about the classroom social practices, which were videotaped by the second author, and interviews with the students and their parents. This paper explores how students and the teacher developed this formative intervention and sustained an effective new practice with positive outcomes for students. The significance for teachers of such research lies in developing authentic educational practices that prioritise students’ agency by giving voice to their concerns and having the confidence in students that they can resolve their issues for learning.

This paper takes a sociocultural approach to the examination of motivation and engagement, and explores these notions in relation to developing participation in learning activities. Sociocultural perspectives view the learner as constituted by cultural and historical processes. Our current understandings of the constructs of motivation and engagement are also constituted culturally and historically. It is therefore useful to examine how the relationship has been understood as well as current considerations and researcher interactions. Looking back a few decades, theories of motivation were used to predict certain kinds of behaviour, such as task choice, engagement and persistence (Weiner, 1990). This suggests ‘motivation' is distinct from and prior to ‘engagement'. Goal theory was a relatively new approach highlighting qualitatively different motivations. A mastery orientation was conceptualized as focusing on interest in learning and improving, and related to a culturally appropriate way of ‘engaging' in learning for its own sake. A performance orientation focused more on normative performance and demonstrating ability. My engagement with motivation research began at this time, and my research suggested motivation was not a property of the individual, and the field needed a way to conceptualise motivation in context, specifically the contexts of change (MacCallum, 2001). Sociocultural theory provided a means to understand motivation differently and collaborative classroom research with teacher, Veronica Morcom, an opportunity to examine motivational development. Sociocultural perspectives also view the learner as embedded within cultural activities in communities, which provide the tools for making sense of the world. These are appropriated in social interactions, providing the means to maintain and transform those communities. These processes are dynamic and contested. Research taking a sociocultural perspective is thus usually longitudinal and focuses on cultural tools, activities and social processes, rather than on the cognitions and contexts of individuals per se. The present paper uses two case studies generated from multiple data sources in a year-long ethnographic study in a year 3 classroom to explore the relationship between motivation and engagement. Taking a view consistent with Rogoff's (1995) concept of participatory appropriation, our research argues that student's motivation develops through participation in class activities. Motivational development is conceptualised as the "transformation of participation towards more mature participation" (Morcom & MacCallum, 2009, p. 24). Different patterns of participation (or engagement) of students Mary and Gemma are elaborated as markers of motivational development. The analyses present an argument for engagement in activity as a means of personal change in motivation.

In 1999-2000 Judy MacCallum and Sue Beltman conducted the first national review of youth mentoring in Australia. Their research characterised mentoring as it was conceptualised and implemented at the time and developed guidelines to support development of effective mentoring programs. Ten years on, what research has been carried out and what more do we know about mentoring in Australia? This session will review the research that has been conducted in Australia over the last 10 years, and in an interactive workshop consider what we still need to know to take mentoring in Australia to the next phase.