Ways to Support Beginning Science Teachers

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Science and Mathematics Instruction of Beginning Elementary Teachers

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

英国初任教师支持体系探析

英国为初任教师提供支持的研究由来已久,目前已经建立了一套完善的初任教师支持体系,为教师的顺利入职和专业成长提供了高效的保障.主要表现为:系统的新教师入职培训计划,个性化的支持方案,多样化的支持机构,以及强有力的质量保证体系.探究英国初任教师支持体系建设的历程与发展,对于促进我国初任教师成长与专业化有着重要的借鉴意义.     

Beginning Elementary Teachers' Development as Teachers of Science

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Beginning Elementary School Teachers and the Effective Teaching of Science

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Navigating the Realities of the Induction Years: Exploring Approaches for Supporting Beginning Physical Education Teachers

Because significant challenges continue to exist in the retention of teachers, the need for an infusion of proactive assimilation strategies, especially related to the induction phase, has become a mandate in physical education. Beginning teachers face countless potential hurdles. From marginalization, role conflict, and teaching diverse student populations, to reality shock and limited resources, the effects of organizational socialization and the realities of the day-to-day workload can be powerful influences on a teacher’s effectiveness and desire to persist. Creating meaningful mentoring relationships, opportunities for purposeful professional development, and timely feedback can serve to help propel teachers through their transition into the field. Acquiring skills to navigate the school culture and provide effective instruction benefits all educational stakeholders. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors that enhance or constrain beginning teachers’ induction processes and offer recommendations for supporting physical educators as they assimilate into the field.     

Beginning Elementary Science Teachers: Developing Professional Knowledge During a Limited Mentoring Experience

The professional development project reported on in this paper, the Beginning Elementary Science Teachers' (BEST) project, was based on the premise that the first years of elementary science teaching can be very important in the development of long-term quality science teaching. Specifically, we report on project experiences that allowed 13 beginning teachers to interact with experienced teachers in a university seminar and during school visits. Results show that these limited mentoring experiences can support the development of professional knowledge and discussion centers on factors that facilitate knowledge growth. Conclusions are presented that compare benefits of these limited mentoring experiences to those reported to be achieved in long-term mentoring programs.     

Bridging a Thirty-Mile Gap

How can parents become involved in their children's residential school when it is 30 miles away? Ron Barnes, head of Great Stony School, Chipping Ongar, Essex, suggests some methods which havesucceeded at his school     

Supporting Teachers Learning Through the Collaborative Design of Technology-Enhanced Science Lessons

This study used the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth in Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 947–967, 2002) to unravel how science teachers’ technology integration knowledge and skills developed in a professional development arrangement. The professional development arrangement used Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a conceptual framework and included collaborative design of technology-enhanced science lessons, implementation of the lessons and reflection on outcomes. Support to facilitate the process was offered in the form of collaboration guidelines, online learning materials, exemplary lessons and the availability of an expert. Twenty teachers participated in the intervention. Pre- and post-intervention results showed improvements in teachers’ perceived and demonstrated knowledge and skills in integrating technology in science teaching. Collaboration guidelines helped the teams to understand the design process, while exemplary materials provided a picture of the product they had to design. The availability of relevant online materials simplified the design process. The expert was important in providing technological and pedagogical support during design and implementation, and reflected with teachers on how to cope with problems met during implementation.     

Beginning Secondary Science Teachers in Different Induction Programmes: The first year of teaching

While it is generally acknowledged that the first years of teaching are the most difficult, little is known about the development of subject matter specialists during this period. In order to add to the knowledge in this area, the present study explores the first year of 114 secondary science teachers as they participate in one of four different induction programmes. The data collected in this study consist of observations of practice, and of interviews about beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge and experiences throughout the year. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data revealed that, as a group, the beginning teachers held teacher‐centred practices, beliefs, and pedagogical content knowledge. Analysis by induction programme, however, revealed that teachers who participated in science‐specific induction programmes significantly changed their beliefs and used more investigations in their classroom lessons than did their peers in the other induction programmes. Moreover, the physical proximity of colleagues was also important to the well‐being of beginning teachers. This study supports the development of science‐specific induction programmes, and provides evidence that the composition of the programme and the assigned location of the new teacher are important factors during a teacher's first year.     

Supporting Teachers to Attend to Generalisation in Science Classroom Argumentation

In scientific arguments, claims must have meaning that extends beyond the immediate circumstances of an investigation. That is, claims must be generalised in some way. Therefore, teachers facilitating classroom argumentation must be prepared to support students’ efforts to construct or criticise generalised claims. However, widely used argumentation support tools, for instance, the claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) framework, tend not to address generalisation. Accordingly, teachers using these kinds of tools may not be prepared to help their students negotiate issues of generalisation in arguments. We investigated this possibility in a study of professional development activities of 18 middle school teachers using CER. We compared the teachers’ approach to generalisation when using a published version of CER to their approach when using an alternate form of CER that increased support for generalisation. In several different sessions, the teachers: (1) responded to survey questions when using CER, (2) critiqued student arguments, (3) used both CER and alternate CER to construct arguments, and (4) discussed the experience of using CER and alternate CER. When using the standard CER, the teachers did not explicitly attend to generalisation in student arguments or in their own arguments. With alternate CER, the teachers generalised their own arguments, and they acknowledged the need for generalisation in student arguments. We concluded that teachers using frameworks for supporting scientific argumentation could benefit from more explicit support for generalisation than CER provides. More broadly, we concluded that generalisation deserves increased attention as a pedagogical challenge within classroom scientific argumentation.     

Internationalizing the Business Curriculum: Bridging the Academic Culture Gap

Rapid global change, driven especially by the telecommunications and computing industries, are rapidly transforming the international economic, social, and cultural landscape. Affected are both urban and rural businesses who face intense competition at home and abroad. If the U.S. is to continue to maintain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace, educational institutions must prepare the next generation of leaders for a pluralistic world in which multiculturalism dominates. This paper addresses one aspect of preparing university graduates for the global setting: the meshing of the business and economics disciplines with other relevant curricula. It describes first the underlying philosophy that supports federal funding for integrative initiatives designed to enhance students' multi‐cultural competence. Second, in the form of a case study, it recounts the experience of a particular program that was successfully implemented recently at the University of Kentucky. Third, this case study can serve as a model for integrative cross‐curricular efforts at institutions of higher learning elsewhere.     

Bridging the Gap Between the Language of Science and the Language of School Science Through the Use of Adapted Primary Literature

In this paper we make the case that the language of school science and the language of science are widely divergent. We trace the divergence to a simple view of reading that prevails not only in science education but in most of schooling. Based upon the importance of language in science and the role of language in capturing the essential nature of scientific reasoning, we conclude that conceiving of reading as a form of inquiry could assist in bringing the two languages more into alignment. We recommend the use of adapted primary literature as one curriculum and instruction innovation that can be useful in illustrating the nature of reading as inquiry.     

Bridging the Gap Between Genomics and Education

ABSTRACT— Despite several decades of research suggesting the importance of both genetic and environmental factors, these findings are not well integrated into the larger educational literature. Following a discussion of quantitative and molecular genetic methods, this article reviews behavioral genetic findings related to cognitive and academic skills. This literature suggests that (a) the relative importance of genes and environments varies developmentally; (b) genetics, and to a lesser extend the environment, account for a substantial portion of the covariance within and across academic domains; and (c) some forms of disability are qualitatively different from the population, whereas others constitute the lower end of a continuum of ability. Following a discussion of the strengths and limitations of current behavioral genetic research and intervention research, we then discuss the ways in which understanding gene–environment interplay can be used to develop better definitions of learning impairment and better explain the substantial variability in response to intervention.     

架设理论与实践的桥梁--谈如何讲授马克思的劳动价值论

劳动价值论是马克思主义政治经济学的基石 ,劳动价值论科学与否直接决定着马克思主义经济学的生存死亡。在当前形势下 ,马克思的劳动价值论面临着许多的挑战。针对教学中如何迎接新挑战 ,正确解答这一理论难题 ,提出了一些解题的思路和行之有效的办法