School–University Action Research: Impacts on Teaching Practices and Pupil Learning

The aim of this article is to describe a design and implementation of a school–university action research project about teaching and learning biology and mathematics in primary school. Nine teachers in grades 1 to 6, in collaboration with two researchers, were using content representation (CoRe) in learning study (LS)-inspired cycle as pedagogical tools when planning, implementing, and reflecting on lessons and pupil learning. By using pre- and post-tests, the teachers acquired knowledge about pupil subject-specific knowledge and learning. Some examples are given on how the tools in the project influenced the teaching practices and pupil learning. This research design brought together university and school practitioners to work collaboratively in a professional learning community, which developed teaching and learning in biology and mathematics.     

Teaching Qualitative Research to Practitioner–Researchers

Practitioner–researchers are well-positioned to apply qualitative methods to the study of significant problems of educational practice. However, while learning the skills of qualitative inquiry, practitioners may be compelled by forces outside of qualitative research classrooms to think quantitatively. In this article, the author considers two sources of pressure on novice education researchers that may hinder their development as qualitative researchers. Drawing on the long-established tradition of reflexivity in qualitative inquiry, the author outlines an instructional approach that can guide students in examining and responding to these pressures.     

Understanding and Teaching Problem‐Solving in Physics

Summaries

English

We describe a systematic study of skills for solving problems in basic physics, a domain of practical significance for instruction, but not of prohibitive complexity. Our studies show that an inexperienced student tends to solve a problem by assembling individual equations. By contrast, an expert solves a problem by a process of successive refinements, first describing the main problem features by seemingly vague words or pictures, and only later considering the problem in greater detail in more mathematical language. We have formulated explicit theoretical models with such features and have supported them by some detailed observations of individuals. In addition, experimental instruction incorporating such features seems to improve problem‐solving performance significantly. These investigations yield thus some basic insights into thinking processes effective for problem‐solving. Furthermore, they offer the prospect that these insights can be used to teach students improved problem‐solving skills and to modify common teaching practices which inhibit the development of such skills.     

Steven Vogel (1940–2015)

Steven Vogel was a pinoneer in applying principles of mechanics to diverse living systems. This article first provides a brief overview of his career. It then reviews the concepts of Péclet number and Reynolds number which are helpful in appreciating the Classics article by Vogel reproduced in this issue.     

Greek technical–vocational education (1870–1940): intentions and failed aspirations

From 1870 until the outbreak of the Second World War there were various attempts at educational reform in Greece, one of the most significant being the intention to establish a national technical–vocational education. The aim of this study is to examine why such a reform was deemed necessary and yet failed to be implemented. The first part examines how foreign influences played an important role in shaping the Greek educational system, both in the type of institution provided and by those Greek students who had studied abroad. Next, there is a close analysis of the official discourse on technical–vocational education, along with an examination of why it was felt that a segmented educational system constituted such a priority. Finally, a critical evaluation is provided to explain how the rhetoric and action of successive Greek governments inevitably failed as a result of ideological confusion and political patronage.     

Roger Osborne (1940–1985), University of Waikato, New Zealand

This short paper outlines the emergence and achievements of the Science Education Research Unit at the University of Waikato over the period 1979–1985 under the leadership of the late Dr. Roger Osborne. Following his attendance at the ASERA meeting in Wagga Wagga in 1977, Roger Osborne rapidly built up a very productive team, which he led until his death in 1985. His legacy is tentatively evaluated. In conclusion, the cultural context in which this work took place is sketched.

Academics' Motivation and Self‐efficacy for Teaching and Research

The study focused on academic staff in a post‐1987 university, that is, a former college of advanced education which had been awarded university status as a result of the Australian Government's decision to have a Unified National System of universities. The focus of attention was motivation and self‐efficacy for teaching and research. The effect of faculty of affiliation, level of appointment, gender, qualifications, and research productivity on staff's self‐reported attributions for teaching and research were examined. Tutors, staff with bachelor degrees, academics with low research productivity, and women had higher teaching motivation. One faculty was lower in both research motivation and self‐efficacy, and associate professors and professors had high levels of research efficacy. Men and women had the same level of research motivation and self‐efficacy. Staff with higher degrees and greater research productivity were more motivated and self‐efficacious about research. The results suggest the need to understand more clearly how each individual's research motivation and self‐efficacy is constructed and to determine the best method of increasing motivation and self‐efficacy for teaching and research.     

Language teachers: Research and studies in language(s) education,teaching, and learning in Teaching and Teacher Education, 1985–2012

The article reviews twelve of 79 articles focusing on language teachers, language(s) teacher education, teaching, and learning published in Teaching and Teacher Education since 1985. The twelve articles, divided into three sections, include narrative inquiry and identity, teacher education topics, and contexts. The articles provide local and contextual expressions that taken together begin to compose a landscape or sphere where various language education researchers share wonderments and puzzlements, queries and inquiries, and insights and understandings. The TATE articles provide puzzle pieces lending evidence to a plausible postdisciplinarity sphere of growing and developing research and studies in language(s) teacher education.     

Research on the Scientific and Technological Innovation of Research University and Its Strategic Measures

This paper illustrates the important role that the scientific and technological innovation plays in the research university. Technological innovation is one of the main functions that the research university serves and contributes for the development of economy and society, which is the essential measure for Research University to promote construction of disciplines and enhance academic strength and economic power. The thesis analyses in detail how to take and strengthen technological innovation for Research University.     

Research and Practice of “Vocational Class” Teaching Mode

"Vocational class" teaching mode is based on vocational ability training of students as the goal to develop target-oriented approach of the teaching reform method; it is a new teaching method.This mode is the integration of teaching,learning and doing in class; it is the typical vocational tasks mode of teaching methods.Teaching process imitates the office scene and the actual working process.     

Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University

William Clark University Of Chicago Press,2006正如本书第一句所言,"这是一本奇特的书"。作为一部非同寻常的大学史,它在隐秘的历史中追述,仿佛探幽览胜,以最谦卑细致的笔触写下最有富于野心的叙述——从中世纪至近代,学术生活如何完成了理性化、科层化,学术卡里斯玛如何被转移、分解和重新定义,大学如何从行会、民族团、神学院、象牙塔变为由现代国家控制的科研机构——研究型大学如何在时代的转变中形成。     

Does Teaching Experience Matter? The Beliefs and Practices of Beginning and Experienced Physics Teachers

This study utilized multiple data sources to examine the beliefs about learning and teaching physics and the instructional practices of five beginning teachers and seven experienced teachers from Singapore. Our study was implemented in the unique context of teachers teaching the topic of electricity to students grouped according to academic abilities. The topic of electricity is one of the most difficult physics topics for students to understand and for teachers to teach. It was found that the experienced teachers, compared to the beginning teachers, tended to have beliefs about teaching and learning physics that are closer to constructivist views. The majority of the teachers, particularly the beginning teachers, espoused beliefs about learning physics that were incongruent with their beliefs about teaching physics. Although transmission-oriented and teacher-directed practices dominated the classroom lessons of both groups of teachers, more elements of constructivist instruction were found in the classroom lessons of the experienced teachers. It was also found that the classroom practices of the teachers, especially those in their inductive years of teaching, were more aligned with their beliefs about learning physics than their beliefs about teaching physics.     

Interdisciplinary Mathematics–Physics Approaches to Teaching the Concept of Angle in Elementary School

The present study takes an interdisciplinary mathematics–physics approach to the acquisition of the concept of angle by children in Grades 3–5. This paper first presents the theoretical framework we developed, then we analyse the concept of angle and the difficulties pupils have with it. Finally, we report three experimental physics‐based teaching sequences tested in three classrooms. We showed that at the end of each teaching sequence the pupils had a good grasp of the concept of angle, they had truly appropriated the physics knowledge at play, and many pupils are enable to successfully grasp new physics situations in which the angle plays a highly meaningful role. Using a physics framework to introduce angles in problem situations is then pertinent: by interrelating different spaces, pupils were able to acquire skills in the domains of mathematics, physics, and modelling. In conclusion, we discuss the respective merits of each problem situation proposed.     

Effects of Problem-Based Learning on University Students’ Epistemological Beliefs About Physics and Physics Learning and Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics

This study investigated the effects of problem-based learning on students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning and conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The study further examines the relationship between students’ beliefs about physics and their conceptual understanding of mechanics concepts. Participants were 124 Turkish university students (PBL = 55, traditional = 69) enrolled in a calculus-based introductory physics class. Students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning and their physics conceptual understanding were measured with the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), respectively. Repeated measures analysis of variance of how PBL influence beliefs and conceptual understanding were performed. The PBL group showed significantly higher conceptual learning gains in FCI than the traditional group. PBL approach showed no influence on students’ beliefs about physics; both groups displayed similar beliefs. A significant positive correlation was found between beliefs and conceptual understanding. Students with more expert-like beliefs at the beginning of the semester were more likely to obtain higher conceptual understanding scores at the end of the semester. Suggestions are presented regarding the implementation of the PBL approach.     

Technology in education: Research and development in the project ‘Physics and Technology’

Summaries

English

The diagnosis of pupils’ misconceptions and the identification of reasons for such misconceptions must be considered the prerequisite for helping the pupils to develop correct scientific conceptions. In the present study, an attempt was made to investigate student teachers’ competency to diagnose pupils’ answers for possible misconceptions. It was found that student teachers are, by and large, not capable of making appropriate diagnoses of misconceptions. In view of this, it is suggested that in science teacher‐training programmes specific training activities be included which are designed to develop the desired diagnostic competence.     

Demystifying and sustaining the resilience of teacher educators: the perspectives of Teaching–Research Officers in China

Asia Pacific Education Review - Responding to increased global research interest in teacher educators’ professional lives, this study explores the resilience of Teaching–Research...