The Scientist as School Teacher

Many scientists, driven by the teaching impulse, idealism, or the wish to see science thrive in the United States, take up one or another form of school teaching or participate in programs designed to enhance science teachers' knowledge of science and science teaching skills. Funding is available, from governmental and private sources, to support innovative programs designed to increase the supply of well-trained science teachers. The provision of new funds to support graduate programs in fundamental science that provide a separate track for graduate students who choose a career in teaching, in preference to a career in the laboratory, is a particularly promising development. It is essential that such programs include proper training in pedagogy. Above all, the Nation must recognize the need to provide proper long-term salary support for science teachers in the public schools countrywide, if any of the programs to improve teaching is to succeed.     

Tools for Successful Student–Teacher–Scientist Partnerships

Student–teacher–scientist partnership (STSP) programs are cooperative relationships in which students, with the support of their teachers, participate in and contribute to the research of scientists. This paper examines one of the world's largest STSPs—an international environmental science education program called GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment)—and proposes recommendations to scientists about how they can get the most out of their research and teaching relationship with students and their teachers. GLOBE is an international K–12 STSP that engages students in Earth's Systems investigations. Extensive training is needed for students to collect and report accurate data to scientists, and special preparatory curricula are needed to make their partnership effective and motivating. Recognizing these issues, this research was conducted specifically to identify and recommend a set of training material design criteria for implementation of STSPs in the elementary and middle school levels. The conclusions—the result of background research, extensive interviews and consultation with teachers—provide guidance to GLOBE and other STSP programs to enhance the development of effective and engaging training materials.     

Killing Mosquitoes and Keeping Practice: Teacher Education as Sustaining Paradox

The moral and ethical charge of teaching and teacher education includes sustaining equanimity and paradox, and maintaining poise amongst contradicting policies and interests. This paper draws upon the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching to address some paradoxes in education and teacher preparation. Specifically, the article looks at four chapters of the Tao Te Ching. By examining these ancient Taoist proverbs from a Western perspective as a teacher and teacher educator in the US this article will discuss challenges and suggestions for teachers and teacher educators successfully navigating amongst, and growing from, paradoxes imbedded in the teaching career.     

The Paradox of Being a Woman Teacher

In this article, the author follows genealogical lines of analysis in an attempt to map the different discourses and practices that interweave women's position in education today. Education is theorised as a nexus of created paradoxical spaces, where the female self has attempted to surpass closed boundaries and to question the dichotomy of the feminised private and/or the masculine public. The author also considers the importance of time restrictions upon women's lives and pays attention to the multifarious ways these lives are highly structured by specific space/time regulations. The genealogical mapthat is drawn depicts various positions, where the female self has created parodic unities and temporary coalitions. Finally, in tracing exit points that education has offered women, the author considers some of the implications of feminist theories for the subversion of the various dilemmas and dichotomies the female subject has lived through.     

Superhero Play: What's a Teacher to Do?

The dilemma over whether or not teachers should allow superhero play in their classroom continues. This article examines adults' beliefs about superhero play and suggests some potential benefits of such play. The authors offer examples of ways they have incorporated superhero play in their classroom.     

悖论与矛盾--师资发展语境的哲学透视

教师与语境是一组辩证的关系，两的互动态势直接影响着师资发展。本试从机构，个体，社会，化等四大语境入手，探讨当前师资发展面临的制约因素，并结合自身经历思忖师资发展的真正内涵，最后阐述师资发展在教育变革中的重要性。     

Play in the Preschool Classroom: Its Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher’s Role in Play

The goals of this paper were two-fold. The first goal was to examine the emotional and social developmental value of play in the early childhood classroom. This issue is important because of the recent impetus for a more academic focus in early childhood classrooms, and questions about the developmental benefits of play. The second goal was to examine and discuss the role teachers could play in making play a developmental and educational experience. This is because understanding the significance of play could make teachers less apprehensive about using play to promote learning and development, and enable them answer questions regarding the value of play. Using these goals as a backdrop, this paper discussed views of children’s play; the defining characteristics of emotional and social development; play and the socioemotional development of children; and the role of early childhood teachers in children’s play.     

Teacher Sensitivity, Children's Attachment and Play with Peers

Three different explanatory models for the development of complex play with peers were examined in a sample of 107 children enrolled in child care. Children's attachment security, caregiver sensitivity, and complex peer play were observed on two different occasions separated by at least six months. With more time in child care, children's play with peers became more complex. Path analysis suggested that adult caregiving behaviors indirectly influence the complexity of peer play and directly influence children's attachment security. Children's attachment security directly influenced the complexity of peer play.     

谈幼儿教师的心理保健工作者角色及其扮演

关于教师在幼儿园教育活动过程中应该扮演什么角色,已成为近年来幼儿研究的一个热点,有的研究指出,教师应该是为孩子发展提供指导的“指导者”、促进孩子发展的“促进者”,教育活动过程中的“组织者和管理者”、教育活动过程中的“反思者和研究者”、能和孩子们平等互动的“同伴”……     

教师要在思想品德教育中发挥楷模作用

思想品德素质优劣直接关系到国民整体素质,在课堂教学中进行思想品德的教育,对促进社会主义精神文明建设,提高学生的思想道德品质有着积极的作用.实施道德教育.教师是主导,是关键,是核心,要发挥楷模作用.     

From the Editor: Challenges to Guiding the Teacher of Guided Play

ABSTRACT

New education reforms in Australia, and elsewhere in the world, are calling for degree-qualified early childhood teachers to work in prior to school contexts, including child care. Yet, emerging research indicates that the majority of early childhood graduates are averse to work in child care, with a career desire to work in other contexts – primary, kindergarten, preschool. This paper reports on a pilot study that focused on early childhood teacher preparation, with attention to child care professional experience. Interviews with early childhood teacher educators, including program coordinators, focused on the decision making processes about the child care professional experience. Discourse analysis located some of the competing and complex discursive considerations, illuminating the contingencies and tensions that face early childhood teacher educators. The imperatives on reflective thinking and decision making in complex early childhood teacher education landscapes are illuminated. These contingencies and tensions have implications for the workforce they are charged to prepare, as policy imperatives call for teachers prepared and willing to work in child care.     

Writing and Role Play: A Case for Inclusion

Role play’s relationship to traditional classroom teaching activities is frequently seen as problematic, in much the same way that language learning outside school often has an unexamined relationship with the teaching of school literacy. The small exploratory study described here suggests that planning role play for specific generic purposes and introducing adults as equal players with strong modelling roles, greatly enhances children’s oral and written achievements, and that these can be further developed by introducing an additional teaching intervention. The study’s findings suggest that this kind of role play can be seen as a legitimate way of implementing some parts of the literacy hour, especially in writing, and as a valuable and assessable curriculum activity in its own right.     

教师主导作用的正确发挥

教师的主导作用 ,不仅表现在制定教学目标、组织教学内容 ,更重要的是通过适当方法和手段 ,充分调动学生的学习积极性 ,最大限度地开发学生的智力。     

教师评价研究述评--兼论我国高校教师评价研究的迫切性

通过梳理教师评价研究的历史脉络,并对教师评价研究的总体状况进行评析,认为:教师评价研究的对象主要是中小学教师,由此也导致教师评价研究的内容多局限于教师教学水平评价,忽略了高校教师评价的特殊性;我国高校教师评价研究已经远远落后于现实要求,迫切需要从理论与实践两个层面进行拓展。     

A Continuum of Play-Based Learning: The Role of the Teacher in Play-Based Pedagogy and the Fear of Hijacking Play

Research Findings: Research has demonstrated the developmental and educational benefits of play. Despite these benefits, teacher-directed academic instruction is prominent in kindergarten. There is increasing acknowledgment in curricula and policies of the challenges presented by a lack of play in classrooms and the need to support academic learning using developmentally appropriate practices. Current research emphasizes a narrow definition of play-based learning as a child-directed practice, resulting in teacher uncertainty about the implementation of this pedagogical approach. Fifteen kindergarten classrooms were examined using qualitative methodology, including observations and teacher interviews. Two different teacher profiles emerged: The 1st profile saw play and learning as separate constructs and reported challenges meeting academic demands using play-based learning. Their students primarily engaged in free play. The 2nd profile believed that play could support academic learning and that teachers fill an important role in play. Their students engaged in 5 different types of play, situated along a continuum from child directed to more teacher directed. Practice or Policy: The continuum of play-based learning provides a broader and more concrete definition of play-based learning to help teachers implement this pedagogical approach and to enhance the study of play-based learning in early years research.     

A Framework for Graduated Teacher Autonomy: Linking Teacher Proficiency With Autonomy

Abstract

Teachers’ autonomy contributes to their development and retention decisions. While proficient teachers would benefit from more autonomy, developing teachers often require more structure and guidance. This article reviews the literature surrounding autonomy and proposes an argument for a Graduated Teacher Autonomy framework: a theoretical tool matching teacher proficiency to autonomy. This dynamic framework has the potential to support the needs of all teachers and could improve teacher satisfaction, retention, development, and administrator–teacher relations.