There has been much talk about student-centred classrooms and students being in control of their own learning. Such notions, even with good intentions, create tensions in classrooms as the power relations between teachers and students are never equal. Students expect teachers to take charge and to teach; teachers expect students to learn and to know who is in charge! Everyday classroom spaces are clearly not ideal for teachers to become learners and learners to be teachers in role reversals that lead to both learner and teacher empowerment. Teachers of English in training and teachers pursuing postgraduate degrees at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus have carved out a new dialogic space in their dual roles as teachers and learners preparing to teach English language and Literature in Creole-speaking environments. This Single Virtual School Space (SVSS) in the form of a computer technology –enhanced Television Studio that links School of Education with Caribbean classrooms was birthed out of a five-year intervention in which teachers pursuing undergraduate courses that support the delivery of the CSEC English syllabus planned, staged and filmed their assignments for assessment in the form of conferences, Readers Theatre, seminars and workshops before live audiences of 1550 students from selected schools. The films were usually edited into 30 min sessions, and taken to local cable television operating in confined geographical spaces for dissemination as examination revision sessions. There was need for a physical but wall -less space on the Mona Campus that merge teachers learning, students learning, syllabus inquiry, research and innovation. This search gave birth to the appropriation of the television studio into a place with pedagogical significance for the professional development of teachers and the improvement of student learning.

Categories: Research in Action

Nature of research undertaken:
The Policy was developed in response to:

• The need to establish standards for all levels of the system.
• Students' poor performance on high­ stakes tests in mathematics e.g.,National tests and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate {CSEC},
• Low levels of numeracy that graduates of the Jamaican educational system demonstrated,
• A reas of weaknesses that teachers of mathematics displayed in implementing the National mathematics curricula.

Inthe 1980s,universal primary education and the rationa lization of secondary education were goals for which detailed and systematic planning was vital. School mapping and micro-planning are used to plan future educational requirements. The process starts from a detailed analysis of the coverage of the educational system and of the teaching/learning conditions in each region before making proposals for reorganizing the schoo l network and the educational service.

The implementation of TVET Rationalization Pilot project in 2004 coupled with national needs and the dema nds of globalization, prompted the formulation of a clearly articulated policy for TVET in Jama ica.

In 1992, four Principals ( Mrs. Brisset Bolt - St.  Peter Claver Primary; Mrs. Duncan - Windward Road Primary;Mrs. Harris - Friendship Primary; Mrs. Chevannes - Char lie Smith High) who were experiencing remarkable reversa ls in anti-social  behaviours, improvement in academics,and parental involvemen t in their schools, became a part of a research team unearthing the methodol ogies that were employed.

Though Early childhood teacher training prepares teachers to teach children from birth through age 8 (includes primary Grades 1&2}, there had been no specific policy of the Ministry of Education that required teachers at grades 1and 2 to be qualified in early childhood education. It had therefore not been common practice to specifically employ early childhood trainedteachers to work in primary Grades 1and 2.

The University of the West Indies (UWI),Mona Campus, collaborated withthe Ministry of Education, through  the  National  College  for  Educational Leadership (NCEL), to implement and evaluate an innovative    programme    towards    sustainable improvement of the education system in Jama ica, under the Principals' Professional Qualifications Programme.

In their report,the researchers suggested that the focus at the primary school level should be on the development of critica l literacies to curb the increasing content demands and to improve the adequacy of the preparation for the transition to secondary education. They pointed out that students need to enter secondary school with competencies that will assist themto start,and remain, on track in the critical a reas of the secondary school curriculum. They argued that a focus on critical literacies at the primary school level will provide the foundation for students to make that transition much easier.