Elementary teachers’ science subject matter knowledge across the teacher career cycle

Although widely touted as important, there is little evidence regarding the influence of teaching experience on elementary teachers' science subject matter knowledge (SMK). To better understand this phenomenon, we administered an assessment of science topics taught in the fifth and sixth grades to 169 preservice teachers, 231 fifth-grade teachers, and 208 sixth-grade teachers. We then compared the mean scores of teachers at different stages in the career cycle using one-way and two-way ANOVA and explored the relationship between SMK scores and years of teaching experience using regression analysis. Findings indicate that (i) being assigned to a specific grade level had an impact on teachers' SMK for topics included in the grade level, (ii) teachers' SMK scores were lower later in their careers for both science topics they had never taught and for science topics they were responsible for teaching, and (iii) results differed for fifth and sixth grades. This study adds to the existing literature through the examination of a large sample of elementary teachers, with teachers of varying years of experience, while focusing on the science topics these teachers are responsible for teaching. The results of this study provide strong evidence that (i) years of experience teaching specific science topics is associated with the development of teachers' knowledge of these topics, and (ii) teaching experience, what teachers do in the context of their everyday practice, can be an effective means of self-directed learning for teachers. There is also evidence that this influence is not uniform across years of teaching experience or science topics taught. These findings raise important implications about future research into the mechanism of SMK development through teaching experience and teacher grade-level assignments.     

Personalized learning through 1:1 technology initiatives: implications for teachers and teaching in neoliberal times

Situated within the broader context of neoliberalism, this article explores how personalized learning, as tied to 1:1 technology initiatives, prompts changes in teachers’ classrooms and practices. The article draws upon a case study of one novice teacher as a way to view how personalized learning is undergirded by tenets of neoliberalism that ultimately change the relationship between teachers, students, and knowledge. While this article does not dispute the positive effects that personalized learning through technology has offered to many students, it explores facets of how such a change has reoriented the role of the teacher and repositioned knowledge as it relates to classrooms and students.     

Integration or Separation? Addressing Religious and Spiritual Issues in Multicultural Counseling: A National Survey of College Counselors

Given contemporary ethical concerns, the authors conducted a national survey of 216 college counselors’ perceptions of integrating religious and spiritual issues in multicultural counseling and counselor education. Using cluster analysis, the authors identified 4 patterns of commitments to multiculturalism and religiosity. Respondents demonstrated ethical bracketing in that they considered religious and spiritual issues favorably within the framework of multicultural counseling, irrespective of their commitments to those topics. Counselors can openly address spiritual and religious diversity.     

The Twelve Cranial Nerves of Christmas: Mnemonics,Rhyme, and Anatomy – Seeing the Lighter Side

Anatomy, has in history, been linked to helpful ways to remember structures, branches of nerves, structures passing through foramina, etc. Scalp is even a mnemonic in itself (S kin, C onnective tissue, A poneurosis, L oose areolar tissue, P ericranium). There has been concern by some educators that using mnemonics or rhymes promotes a surface approach to learning and is unhelpful in establishing long-term and meaningful deep learning. This article argues that mnemonics and rhyme can be used, in the appropriate way, at the right time, by students as an important learning strategy. That strategy can help lay a foundation of knowledge to be developed and later built upon, or simply recall information more easily. Mnemonics, like all information that is to be recalled, is consolidated by rehearsal. In examining the neuroanatomy of learning theories, it is therefore possible to suggest that when students begin to learn an area of anatomy, such as the cranial nerves, using a mnemonic or rhyme, it can help students remember the names and facilitate the engagement of the working memory processes assisting the student to build a construct for subsequent deeper layers of knowledge. Modern approaches to anatomy education involve a myriad of learning opportunities, but educators must assess the value of each one before recommending them to students. It appears that using mnemonics and rhyme is as valid today as it has been for centuries.     

Enhancement and constraint: student-mothers’ experiences of higher vocational education,emotion and time

Student-mothers who study vocationally related higher education programmes are a relatively under-researched group. Specifically, there is a paucity of research into the emotions that these learners experience. This article discusses a qualitative investigation that examined the emotional narratives that a group of vocational student-mothers offered. They were studying for a foundation degree for teaching assistants at a university in the North of England. The student-mothers were largely found to have experienced positive emotions. However, familial and workplace guilt had also been encountered. These emotions emanated from notions about how family and workplace time should be used. Student-mothers managed this cognitive dissonance by stressing the reciprocal relationships that existed between their studies, family lives and school work. However, for many of these learners familial and workplace guilt was a strong and continuing emotion.