Gender Differences in High‐school Students’ Views about Science

This study examined gender differences in 79 high‐school students’ attitudes towards their science classes, their perceptions of science and scientists, and their views about majoring in science. The study identified some of the subtleties underlying females’ low participation in, and interest in, science documented in previous research. Four themes emerged from responses on the rating scales and questionnaire. First, even when females planned to major in science, they were more interested than males in the people‐oriented aspects of their planned majors. Second, biology was the one exception to females’ low interest in science. Third, females often planned a science major mainly because they needed a science background in order to enter a health profession such as medicine or physical therapy. Fourth, females generally found science uninteresting and the scientific lifestyle (as perceived by them) unattractive. Implications for teaching science were discussed.     

High Expectations: Untenured teacher involvement in school decision‐making

Findings from the current study show that new teacher expectations for involvement in school decision‐making are not being actualized. Based on feedback from elementary and secondary teachers (n=504) in 87 schools, the results show significant differences between actual and preferred levels of participation in 16 areas of school decision‐making. Although their motivation to participate is interpreted as a positive finding, the very high expectations for involvement suggest that new teachers are naive to the realities of school governance. These findings emphasize the need to better equip new teachers for the realities and the challenges of school governance.     

High‐school students’ reasoning while constructing plant growth models in a computer‐supported educational environment

This paper highlights specific aspects of high‐school students’ reasoning while coping with a modeling task of plant growth in a computer‐supported educational environment. It is particularly concerned with the modeling levels (‘macro‐phenomenological’ and ‘micro‐conceptual’ level) activated by peers while exploring plant growth and with their ability to shift between or within these levels. The focus is on the types of reasoning developed in the modeling process, as well as on the reasoning coherence around the central concept of plant growth. The findings of the study show that a significant proportion of the 18 participating dyads perform modeling on both levels, while their ability to shift between them as well as between the various elements of the ‘micro‐conceptual’ level is rather constrained. Furthermore, the reasoning types identified in peers’ modeling process are ‘convergent’, ‘serial’, ‘linked’ and ‘convergent attached’, with the first type being the most frequent. Finally, a significant part of the participating dyads display a satisfactory degree of reasoning ‘coherence’, performing their task committed to the main objective of exploring plant growth. Teaching implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Streamlining high‐school homework

Western Youth Meets Eastern Culture. By Frances G. Sweeney, Emily Fanning Barry, and Alice E. Schoelkopf. Columbia University, 1932. Pp. xvi + 335.

Journalistic Vocations. By Charles Elkins Rogers. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1931. Pp. ix + 354.

Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin. By Thomas Woody. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Co. 1931. Pp. ix + 270.

The Austrian Educational Institutes. By Beryl Parker. Vienna and Leipzig : Austrian Federal Publisher for Education, Science, and Art, 1931. Pp. 12 + 184.

Secondary Education. By Herbert G. Lull. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1932. Pp. xxii + 356.

Case Studies of Normal Adolescent Girls. By Elsie M. Smithies. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1933. Pp. ix + 284.

The Road to Health. Books I and II. By Bundesen &; Manry. New York: Laidlaw Brothers, 1932. Pp. 96 + 127.

Our Neighbors Near and Far. By Carpenter. Book One. American Book Company.

English Practice Books. Books 3, 4, and 6. By Fennek and Madden. The American Book Company.

The Art of Educational Research. By Harold H. Abelson. New York: World Book Company, 1933. Pp. xi + 332.

Educational Psychology. By Harry L. HoixingsworTh. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1933. Pp. xvi + 540.

Arithmetic Workbook, Grade I. By Clifford B. Upton. New York: American Book Company, 1933. Pp. 128.

Clothing. By Friend and Shultz. Pp. x + 300. Living in Our Homes. By Friend and Shultz. Pp. xviii + 274. New York : D. Appleton and Co., 1933.

Lina Sarger. By Marque Maier. Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1932. Pp. 249.

Study Guide in Secondary Education. By Edgar M. Draper and Alexander G. Roberts. New York : The Century Co., 1933. Pp. xi + 151.

Survey of Higher Education in Maine. By the University of Maine. Pp. x + 430.

Archery Simplified. By Phillip Rounsevelle. New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1931. Pp. vii + 120.

The Dawn of Literature. By Cam, Holliday. New York : Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Pp. 377.

Problem Solving in Arithmetic. By Leon Nelson Neulen. New York City: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1931. Pp. v + 87.

A Text‐Book of Physics. Fourth Edition. By Louis Bevier Spinney. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1931. Pp. v + 679.

The Junior College. By Walter C. Eells. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931. Pp. xxviii + 833.

Realism in American Education. By William Setchel Learned. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1932. Pp. 2 + 70.

Paraguay. By Arthur Elwood Elliott. New York City : Teachers College, Columbia University, 1931. Pp. v + 210.

Modern Business Geography. By Ellsworth Huntington and Sumner W, Cushing. New York : World Book Company. Pp. xii + 352.

The World We Live In. By Gertrude Hartman. Macmillan.

The Measurement of Certain Aspects of Personality Among Hard of Hearing Adults. By Henry Hunter Welles, III. New York : Columbia University, 1932. Pp. viii + 77.

The Educational and Occupational Preferences of College Seniors. By Marlin Ray Chauncey. New York: Columbia University, 1932. Pp. 72.

Making the Most of Books. By Leal A. Headley. Illinois: American Library Association, 1932. Pp. 342.

Relations of Religious Training and Life Patterns to the Adult Religious Life. By Luther Ellis Woodward. Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932. Pp. v + 75.     

Studying English with Thai and native‐speaking teachers

This research examined how students in foundation English classes perceive their Thai and native‐speaking teachers. The researchers surveyed students at five universities and compared a group of 600 students studying with native‐speaking teachers with another group of 600 students studying with Thai teachers in order to investigate three areas: (1) students’ previous background in English‐language learning, (2) students’ general opinions and preferences for studying English with Thai or native‐speaking teachers, and (3) student perceptions of studying with their current English teachers. Overall, most students had similar backgrounds and thought positively about their classroom teachers. However, there were differences in students’ teacher preferences for studying English; students more commonly preferred the type of teacher that was presently teaching them. This suggests that the type of teacher in the classroom does have some effect on students’ preferences and should be considered a factor when analysing research related to native‐speaking and nonnative‐speaking English teachers.     

Promoting Pre‐experimental Activities in High‐school Chemistry: Focusing on the role of students’ epistemic questions

In high‐school chemistry the pre‐experimental phase of inquiry cycles often remains neglected. According to a procedural model, which is described in the text, this phase begins with an observation that stimulates students’ prior factual knowledge, the formulation of a research question for further elaboration (epistemic questions), the anticipation of a hypothetical answer, and the planning of experimental steps for deciding on the hypothetical answer. These activities were explicitly prescribed in an experimental group of 28 10th‐graders. Raising the quality of students’ epistemic research questions by providing structured help was a special focus of the intervention. Hypothesised motivational and cognitive effects were measured and compared with a group of 25 students (control group) who engaged in non‐structured pre‐experimental activities. The intervention provided to the experimental group resulted in stronger preferences for a more open and non‐recipe type of experimentation, in more intense cognitive activities (thoughts), and, most importantly, in increased skills for formulating causal epistemic questions. Supporting such procedural skills in classrooms may contribute to transforming labwork into intentional activities and students into active learners by helping them focus on further elaborating their knowledge.     

The high‐school science library

Student behavioral and emotional difficulties, often comorbid with each other and with learning difficulties and academic underachievement, have become an increasing concern to educational settings. This article first provides a conceptual framework for child assessment and highlights the role of behavior rating scales and personality inventories. This article reviews the role of behavior rating scales and personality inventories as a tool for screening students whose behavioral and emotional difficulties may affect their learning, their interpersonal relationships at school, and students who may pose significant management problems for teachers. The utility of specific uni- and multidimensional scales is reviewed relative to major behavioral and emotional difficulties shown by school students. Issues with using these tools are discussed. The Student Behavior Survey (SBS), a teacher-report scale, is described to illustrate the relative contributions of these scales.     

High school students’ difficulties in understanding osmosis

Preconceptions and misconceptions of 500 secondary students in years 9‐12 regarding osmosis were studied through the use of five different kinds of instruments: prior learning inventory, self‐report knowledge inventory, true/false test, definitions and clinical interviews. Some of the major findings were: (1) The most frequent explanation offered to osmosis is ‘a desire or drive towards equalizing concentrations’. (2) Hardly any student uses the concept ‘water concentration’. (3) Most students fail to realize that in dynamic equilibrium water molecules keep moving. (4) Students have special difficulty in understanding osmotic relations in plants. (5) Many students have difficulty in grasping solute‐solvent and concentration‐quantity relations. (6) Students often perform laboratory experiments without really understanding the underlying principles. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

KAIZEN: school‐wide quality improvement

Abstract

It is evident that secondary schools organise themselves in different ways for the purposes of pastoral organisation. In general these can be characterised as either horizontal or vertical structures, depending on whether a Year or House system has been adopted. From a survey of secondary schools in one particular local education authority, it appears that the most common and popular approach for secondary schools to organise pastoral care is based on a Year (horizontal) system in which Heads of Year have overall responsibility for pupils in one age‐group. However, one potential problem is that such an arrangement may give rise to an artificial separation of pastoral and academic concerns. In comparing and contrasting the respective advantages of Year and House systems of pastoral organisation and management, David Fincham examines a model in which a school sets out to combine pastoral and academic concerns by establishing a vertical (House) system. Whilst acknowledging that pastoral care implies something more than the setting up of a formal organisation for management purposes, he proposes that academic and pastoral concerns can in fact be integrated effectively through a vertical system.     

Motivational influences on school‐prompted interest

Some argue that the goal of education is to influence out‐of‐school learning activity, yet little research exists on how teachers can help students develop an interest in a topic and continue to pursue that interest outside of school. The current study tested classroom context variables from self‐determination theory (teachers’ autonomy support) and from achievement goal theory (teachers’ mastery goals) that may predict students’ school‐prompted interest above and beyond students’ mastery goals and self‐efficacy. Survey data were collected from 178 high school students in 15 mathematics classes. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that students’ perceptions of a teacher who focuses on mastery goals account for little variance above and beyond students’ own motivation, whereas perceived teachers’ autonomy support emerged as a significant predictor. While the results are correlational and do not support causal claims, they suggest that teachers who support student autonomy might foster school‐prompted interest.     

New counter‐school cultures: female students' drug use at a high‐achieving secondary school

We draw on case‐study research at a high‐achieving secondary school in London to illustrate how school experiences may influence drug use and reproduce inequalities in reconstructed ways in late modernity. Qualitative data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with students and teachers, and observations. We focus in particular on the accounts of three female students expressing a shared counter‐school identity and style to explore how drug use has become an important source of bonding, identity construction, coping and excitement for young women from disadvantaged families at high‐achieving schools, including as part of strategies to resist the narrow focus schools can place on academic attainment, monitoring and discipline. We propose that, in late modern times, class‐based counter‐school cultures are being replaced with new consumer‐based ones, but that secondary schools continue to act as sites for the reproduction of social stratification, as well as risk and harm relating to drug use.     

Developing Functional Language with Young Children from English‐speaking and Punjabi‐speaking Home Backgrounds: incidental teaching and contingent access to materials

Summary Two nursery class teachers were introduced to, and instructed in the use of, ‘Incidental Teaching’ (I.T.) procedures designed to facilitate child initiated language interactions in the natural classroom environment. Both nursery classes included a large proportion of children from Punjabi‐speaking homes. Throughout the study teacher‐child language interactions were sampled using a radio microphone linked to a tape recorder. For each sample all child initiations addressed to the teacher were transcribed together with all teachers’ responses to child initiations. A multiple baseline design across teachers/classes was employed to evaluate the effects of I.T. procedures and an amended strategy.

After the initial training session, both teachers’ use of I.T. procedures increased markedly and in both classes children initiated more frequently. The total number of words spoken to the teacher, and the average number of words spoken per child, increased in both groups. During a second intervention phase (the amended strategy), when the teachers arranged the environment so that children were required to request access to certain materials, both the number of child initiations and the teachers’ use of I.T. procedures continued to rise in both classes. In school A both the total number of words spoken, and the average number of words used per child, continued to rise, whilst in school B the total number of words spoken and the average number of words used per child fell, as more children with restricted language became involved in language interactions.     

Education and school‐to‐work transitions in post‐communist Poland∗

Abstract

Unemployment in Poland rose throughout 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993 but the proportion of school‐leavers among the unemployed peaked in 1990. Unlike in most western market economies, the best‐ educated young people in Poland did not prove the least vulnerable to unemployment. This paper uses evidence from studies of young people in Gdansk, Katowice and Suwalki to argue that one reason why young people from professional and vocational secondary schools have not borne a heavier share of Poland's unemployment since 1990 has been the flexibility and responsiveness of these schools to Poland's new labour market conditions. Since the reforms many of these schools have contracted drastically. Some have closed. But others have thrived The latter have often benefited from favourable local labour market conditions, but their success has usually been at least equally due to their own resourcefulness in introducing new courses which teach skills that are in demand, and securing various kinds of sponsorship from employers. Three reasons are offered to explain the responsiveness of education in Poland to the changing labour market conditions: general support for ‘the reforms’, the schools’ experience of making informal deals with employers under communism, and the post‐communist authorities’ willingness to force unsuccessful schools to close and to see teachers made redundant.