PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS’ CHALLENGES IN TEACHING REASONING-AND-PROVING

The activity of reasoning-and-proving is at the heart of mathematical sense making and is important for all students’ learning as early as the elementary grades. Yet, reasoning-and-proving tends to have a marginal place in elementary school classrooms. This situation can be partly attributed to the fact that many (prospective) elementary teachers have (1) weak mathematical (subject matter) knowledge about reasoning-and-proving and (2) counterproductive beliefs about its teaching. Following up on an intervention study that helped a group of prospective elementary teachers make significant progress in overcoming these two major obstacles to teaching reasoning-and-proving, we examined the challenges that three of them identified that they faced as they planned and taught lessons related to reasoning-and-proving in their mentor teachers’ classrooms. Our findings contribute to research knowledge about major factors (other than the well-known factors related to teachers’ mathematical knowledge and beliefs) that deserve attention by teacher education programs in preparing prospective teachers to teach reasoning-and-proving.     

重视数学阅读,打造深度学习课堂

许多小学数学教师已然认识到了开展小学数学阅读活动和制定科学的教学方法,对提高学生的计算能力和思维能力的重要作用。所以,教师在教学过程中要积极探索科学的教学方法培养学生的有效阅读能力,这样学生才能够更好地理解和学习数学知识,提高学生的解题思维能力和学习有效性。以下便对数学阅读活动的开展和深度学习课堂的构建进行分析和探究。     

Promoting Middle School Students’ Understandings of Molecular Genetics

Genetics is the cornerstone of modern biology and understanding genetics is a critical aspect of scientific literacy. Research has shown, however, that many high school graduates lack fundamental understandings in genetics necessary to make informed decisions or to participate in public debates over emerging technologies in molecular genetics. Currently, much of genetics instruction occurs at the high school level. However, recent policy reports suggest that we may need to begin introducing aspects of core concepts in earlier grades and to successively develop students’ understandings of these concepts in subsequent grades. Given the paucity of research about genetics learning at the middle school level, we know very little about what students in earlier grades are capable of reasoning about in this domain. In this paper, we discuss a research study aimed at fostering deeper understandings of molecular genetics at the middle school level. As part of the research we designed a two-week model-based inquiry unit implemented in two 7th grade classrooms (N = 135). We describe our instructional design and report results based on analysis of pre/post assessments and written artifacts of the unit. Our findings suggest that middle school students can develop: (a) a view of genes as productive instructions for proteins, (b) an understanding of the role of proteins in mediating genetic effects, and (c) can use this knowledge to reason about a novel genetic phenomena. However, there were significant differences in the learning gains in both classrooms and we provide speculative explanations of what may have caused these differences.     

Fostering students’ creativity via educational robotics: An investigation of teachers’ pedagogical practices based on teacher interviews

This study explored how educational robotics (ER) was implemented in classrooms to foster creativity among elementary school students and identified challenges associated with its implementation. Twenty-six teachers at different elementary schools were interviewed. In-depth teacher interviews and grounded theory were used to collect and analyze the interviews. We found that the intended creative learning outcome for students was mastery of the developmental process of creativity. The teachers generally reported using a four-phase instructional framework consisting of eight sub-phases and targeted teaching strategies to support students’ learning outcomes. Challenges included insufficient appropriate learning materials, a lack of expansive learning activities and tasks and limited opportunities to engage students in the process of design thinking and developing metacognitive abilities. The findings have practical implications for teachers and researchers who are interested in developing pedagogical practices (PP) incorporating ER to support students’ creativity. The study also has theoretical value, offering insights into teachers’ PP in implementing ER.     

The Integration of Preservice Teachers’ Naive and Informed Beliefs about Learning and Teaching

Preservice teacher education students are likely to have acquired naive beliefs about learning and teaching, that need to be integrated with theoretically informed beliefs, if they are to function effectively in classrooms. This study explored the nature of such integration using a sample of Graduate Diploma in Education students engaged in an educational psychology subject which was designed to help students develop constructivist beliefs and approaches to learning. Investigation of students’ journal entries, written statements, and stimulated recall interviews related to videotaped practice teaching sessions, revealed that students were able to integrate prior beliefs with the theoretical content of the course, enabling them to describe, and in some cases, evidence informed conditional knowledge.     

Effective integration of ICT in Singapore schools: pedagogical and policy implications

This paper examines and analyses where and how information and communication technologies (ICT) are integrated in Singapore schools to engage students in higher-order thinking activities. Taking the activity system as a unit of analysis, the study documents the actual processes and sociocultural elements that engage students in higher-order thinking. By employing methods such as observations, focus group discussions with students, and face-to-face interviews with teachers, ICT-coordinators and principals, an account of how the activity systems within and between classrooms, and the schools are generated. Based on the analysis of the data from 10 schools, issues in the learning environment are discussed: Necessary (classroom management and orienting activities) and sufficient conditions (scaffolding activities and supporting school policies) for effective ICT integration in the classroom. The account also highlights the constraints of time and lack of knowledge and experience in the contexts that the teachers are working under, and how these constraints are addressed by supporting school policies in the larger sociocultural setting of the school. This account provides a sample of pedagogical and sociocultural issues that are discussed over the course and at the end of the project. Like a good guidebook, the study sensitizes the audience to what is likely to happen given a particular objective, constraint, or design.     

新课改下的小学数学课堂组织教学研究

近年来教育在逐步改革,在课程改革的当下,教育部提出要以学生为中心、教师为指导的思想,创造高效课堂。教师要适应这种改革,培养学生主动参与课堂的意识,把课本上的知识与学生生活实际紧密联系起来,积极鼓励学生大胆去参与学习、探究学习,要相信学生的发散性思维和天马行空的想法在实践中可以得到创新和发挥。本文就新课程改革下的小学数学课程组织策略进行了探索。     

Evaluation of a pedagogical model for student engagement in learning activities

Current research suggests that student engagement with academic schoolwork in secondary school classrooms is often insufficient. This issue is of relevance because student engagement is a prerequisite for acquiring knowledge and skills and is also a mediator of achievement and important life outcomes. In response to this, the present study evaluates a pedagogical model for stimulating student engagement in learning activities in secondary school contexts through an action research approach. This model is composed of five facilitators of engagement that, when considered in both the design and implementation of learning activities, can potentially contribute to stimulating behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in such activities. Nineteen Year 9 students of Spanish from a state school in England, their teacher and the researcher participated in two long-term, learning activities designed using the proposed pedagogical model. Data were collected over two school terms through qualitative student self-reports, interviews with students and their teacher and the researcher’s journal. Thematic analyses were used to examine the effects of the learning activities on student behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. The results seem to confirm that the application of the proposed pedagogical model could help promote thorough student engagement in learning activities. Findings also suggest that failing to support the model’s facilitators of engagement may have detrimental effects on overall student engagement in learning activities. The study contributes to the improvement of student engagement with academic schoolwork internationally by proposing an assessed pedagogical solution that could be implemented by secondary school teachers with relative ease.     

Effects of active‐learning experiences on achievement,attitudes, and behaviors in high school biology

Active‐learning labs for two topics in high school biology were developed through the collaboration of high school teachers and university faculty and staff and were administered to 408 high school students in six classrooms. The content of instruction and testing was guided by State of Texas science objectives. Detailed teacher records describing daily classroom activities were used to operationalize two types of instruction: active learning, which used the labs; and traditional, which used the teaching resources ordinarily available to the teacher. Teacher records indicated that they used less independent work and fewer worksheets, and more collaborative and lab‐based activities, with active‐learning labs compared to traditional instruction. In‐class test data show that students gained significantly more content knowledge and knowledge of process skills using the labs compared to traditional instruction. Questionnaire data revealed that students perceived greater learning gains after completing the labs compared to covering the same content through traditional methods. An independent questionnaire administered to a larger sample of teachers who used the lab‐based curriculum indicated that they perceived changing their behaviors as intended by the student‐centered principles of the labs. The major implication of this study is that active‐learning–based laboratory units designed and developed collaboratively by high school teachers and university faculty, and then used by high school teachers in their classrooms, can lead to increased use of student‐centered instructional practices as well as enhanced content knowledge and process learning for students. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 960–979, 2007     

浅谈如何提高小学体育课堂教学有效性

提高小学体育课堂教学的有效性,可以让学生在获取知识的同时也得到身体素质和各种体育技能的锻炼,利于学生的身体健康发展。对此,本文针对小学体育课堂的有效性进行分析,并对如何提高小学体育课堂教学有效性进行探讨,旨在提高小学体育课堂的教学质量,提升学生的综合素质和学习效率。     

Elementary Science Indoors and Out: Teachers, Time, and Testing

In this article, we present the results from a mixed-methods research study aimed to document indoor and outdoor fifth grade science experiences in one school in the USA in the context of accountability and standardized testing. We used quantitative measures to explore students’ science knowledge, environmental attitudes, and outdoor comfort levels, and via qualitative measures, we examined views on science education and environmental issues from multiple sources, including the school’s principal, teachers, and students. Students’ science knowledge in each of the four objectives specified for grade 5 significantly improved during the school year. Qualitative data collected through interviews and observations found limited impressions of outdoor science. Findings revealed that, despite best intentions and a school culture that supported outdoor learning, it was very difficult in practice for teachers to supplement their classroom science instruction with outdoor activities. They felt constrained by time and heavy content demands and decided that the most efficient way of delivering science instruction was through traditional methods. Researchers discuss potentials and obstacles for the science community to consider in supporting teachers and preparing elementary school teachers to provide students with authentic experiential learning opportunities. We further confront teachers’ and students’ perceptions that science is always best and most efficiently learned inside the classroom through traditional text-driven instruction.     

Student explanations of their science teachers’ assessments,grading practices and how they learn science

The current paper draws on data generated through group interviews with students who were involved in a larger ethnographic research project performed in three science classrooms. The purpose of the study from which this data was generated, was to understand science teachers’ assessment practices in an upper-secondary school in Sweden. During group interviews students were asked about their conceptions of what were the assessment priority of teachers, why the students were silent during lecturing and their experiences regarding peer- and self-assessments. The research design and analysis of the findings derives from what students told us about their assessments and learning sciences experiences. Students related that besides the results of the written test, they do not know what else teachers assessed and used to determine their grades. It was also found that students did not participate in the discussion on science because of peer-pressure and a fear of disappointing their peers. Student silence is also linked with student conceptions of science learning and student experiences with methodologies of teaching and learning sciences.     

Teachers' in-flight thinking in inclusive classrooms

This article explores the thinking of five junior high school teachers as they teach students with learning difficulties in inclusive classrooms. Insights into the ways these teachers think about students in these inclusive secondary school contexts were obtained through triangulating data from semistructured interviews, stimulated recall of in-flight thinking, and researcher field notes. Exploration of teachers' in-flight thinking (i.e., the thinking of teachers as they engaged in classroom teaching) revealed a knowledge of individual students that was not related to categorical notions of learning difficulties. This research has implications for the practice of teaching in inclusive settings as well as for teacher preparation. Specifically, it suggests that attention to student differences should be replaced by the development of teachers' knowledge about individual students as a rich source of practical knowledge and the basis for developing effective instructional techniques.     

Cross-grade analysis of Chinese students’ English learning motivation: a mixed-methods study

This mixed-methods study investigated the changes in Chinese students’ motivation to learn English from elementary to high school and explored the reasons for these changes at different school levels. A motivational questionnaire was designed and administered to 3,777 elementary, junior high, and high school students, and follow-up interviews were then conducted with nine students in order to investigate their perceptions of their motivations. Seven subcomponents of motivation were identified. The statistical results revealed that junior high school students had the highest learning motivation, followed by those in elementary school and those in high school. The interview data indicated that parents’ positive influence on students’ English learning motivation was greater for junior high school students compared to elementary and high school students. Furthermore, the pressure of the college entrance examination had a negative influence on high school students’ motivation to learn English. Based on the findings of this study, suggestions for further research are provided.     

A Qualitative Examination of Teacher-Student Power-Sharing in Chinese Classrooms: A Study in Hong Kong

This article explores the dynamics of power-sharing between teacher and students in learning and teaching situations, and describes the theoretical bases, implementation, and results of an empirical study in three elementary schools in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Findings from 58 class observations and interviews with 50 students, 25 teachers, and three school principals suggest that teachers can empower students by acknowledging their right to and responsibility for learning and by sharing power with students. Power-sharing classroom practice requires the dual efforts of teachers and students, and can be facilitated by the teachers’ interactive teaching mode, students’ cooperation and willingness to engage in learning, and school policy and culture, etc. In the power-sharing classrooms, teachers played the role of facilitators and students played as collaborators. In this article, theoretical implications for understanding power-sharing and critical pedagogy are discussed. The empirical evidence from this Hong Kong study contributes to an understanding of teacher-initiated power-sharing in the Chinese context, and the practice of critical pedagogy in classrooms.     

Prospective and Mentor Teacher Perspectives on Co-learning Events

One response to the disconnect between principle-based university methods courses and practice-oriented elementary school classrooms has been to create co-learning spaces by bringing prospective teachers (PSTs), practicing mentor teachers (MTs), and teacher educators together to explore key ideas related to teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to examine MTs’ and PSTs’ perspectives on their experiences in co-learning events designed to maximize co-construction of knowledge that might lessen the gap between theory and practice. Findings from the analysis of interviews with 16 PSTs and 22 MTs included numerous benefits of co-learning events, including opportunities for (a) MTs to learn about PSTs’ world and build relationships; (b) PSTs to learn from MTs’ practical knowledge; and (c) to foster diverse perspectives and mutually beneficial collaboration. Participants also described tensions related to positioning MTs and PSTs in collaborative roles. Implications for the design of co-learning events in teacher education are discussed.     

Motivational beliefs and cognitive processes in mathematics achievement, analyzed in the context of cultural differences: a Korean elementary school example

The relations among students’ motivational beliefs, cognitive processes, and academic achievement were investigated. A 51-item questionnaire together with a mathematics achievement test was administered to 459 fifth graders in Korean elementary school mathematics classrooms. Results indicated that, in general, students’ cognitive processes related closely to competence beliefs, task values, and achievement goals, and more importantly their success or failure in mathematics achievement was closely linked to competence beliefs, performance-avoidance goals, and persistence strategies. Positive evidence of performance-approach goals was observed in math learning relative to task goals. As expected, performance-avoidance goals turned out to be detrimental to students’ math learning. These findings are generally congruent with the motivational theories and support the position that students should be encouraged to adopt task goals and actively involve themselves in math class activities. However, it also behooves us to recognize the potential benefits of performance-approach goals in different cultural contexts, such as the Korean elementary school math classrooms.     

Learning Together While Designing: Does Group Size Make a Difference?

As the use of project-based learning becomes more frequent in the K-12 science classroom, and in chemistry classrooms in particular, teachers have begun to identify practical questions about implementation that should be addressed empirically. One such question concerns whether there is an ideal group size that fosters individual student achievement. The current project was designed to assess how group size might impact student chemistry content learning in a project-based learning environment, and how well students are prepared to transfer this new knowledge to other relevant areas. The results indicated that particular conditions (e.g. advanced classrooms) interact with group size (a seemingly superficial feature) to differentially influence the depth and level of student learning related to the unit and student’s ability to transfer his/her knowledge outside of the context of a project-based learning unit.     

Between two stories: assessment of and for learning

The study was conducted in a school for special education with small classes of six to 12 students. The aim was to illuminate how students’ understanding of written assessments could be related to assessment for learning. Twenty-nine students were asked to describe their understanding of written assessment in three different subjects and, further, to describe their perceptions in follow-up interviews. The two-step analysis first focused on individual understanding. Thereafter Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) was used as analytical tool. In the first analysis three categories were identified. Students’ understandings were related to subject matter knowledge, generic skills and attitudes. The findings of the second analysis indicated that written assessment often lacked formative features and cannot be seen as learning in the ZPD. Difficulties with schoolwork were seen as problems of the individual and the measures were directed towards the student. Even though the guidelines ask for a relational perspective a categorical perspective sometimes was adopted in the assessments. The implications of the study relate to the ways teacher’s assessment competences can encompass students’ understanding and how this can be translated into action.