Culturalizing Science Instruction: What Is It,What Does It Look Like and Why Do We Need It?

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

What Does the Skill of Observation Look Like in Young Children?

Fifty‐six children, aged between 4 and 11 years, in seven groups, were videoed playing with, being questioned about and sorting a collection of toys in order to identify what skills of observation looked like in young children, how observations influenced other scientific skills and what supported the skill of observation. Children’s skills of observation were found to be similar across all ages and included affective, functional, social and exploratory comments, actions, and questions. These initial observations led to the use of other scientific process skills: classification, prediction, hypotheses, along with explanation for younger children and interpretations for older children. There was generally a greater sophistication of observation skills with increasing age of the children. Observations in young children were found to be tactile and developed in two ways: by engaging in more unique close observation and interpreting observation by utilising previous knowledge and experiences. Important factors affecting the development of observational and other scientific skills were found to be the context (activity, environment, resources) and combination of social interactions between individuals, peers, and adults. This combination supported the development of both observational and other scientific skills, although the nature and amount of this interaction appeared individual to different groups of children and could not be predicted.     

What Does a Culturally Sustaining Learning Climate Look Like?

A solid base of research evidence exists to show that teachers’ assessments of children are impacted by their perceptions of those children. From the Pygmalion in the Classroom experiment which powerfully showed that teacher expectations of students impacted those students’ performance, to more recent research on teachers’ underrating of children based on low SES, race, and language learner status, it is clear that what educators believe about their students has real implications for their educational outcomes. This article examines the learning climate for young children at the intersection of children's immigration status, disproportionality, and teacher perceptions, making an argument for classrooms that are humanizing and culturally sustaining. Given the large and ever growing population of young immigrant students, teachers need tools to develop positive climates within which all students can thrive. This article presents a framework of such tools that can be built into teacher preparation curricula to support the development of early childhood educators.     

What Does RTI (Response to Intervention) Look Like in Preschool?

This paper examines the use of Response to Intervention (RTI) in early childhood programs, more specifically in preschool settings. The paper proposes that RTI in preschool could focus on alleviating risk factors as it relates to social emotional competence, and reduction of challenging behaviors during early childhood years. A case-study in which RTI is used for challenging behaviors of a child is examined. Further, recommendations for practice in application of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) in preschool are made.     

If Multicultural Science Education Standards’ Existed, What Would They Look Like?

The intersection between science teacher education and multiculturalism has produced a considerable amount of research in the science education community. This paper suggests, according to current science teacher preparation literature, an initial set of multicultural science education standards for science methods course instructors of preservice teachers: dialogic conversation, authentic activities, reflexivity, ability, committed practice, and knowing. Included in the discussion of each standard is an activity or lesson that a science methods course instructor can implement.     

Policy and Practice in Assessment in Anglophone Africa: Does globalisation explain convergence?

This paper explores policy and practice in assessment in developing countries in anglophone Africa in the context of globalisation. A simple interpretation of some globalisation theory suggests that there should be a convergence in the form and content of assessment following on from innovations in practice in metropolitan countries, in this case England. The analysis of assessment instruments shows that there has indeed been some convergence across the nine African cases examined, but that this is not best explained by the adoption of innovations current in the metropole. More powerful explanations are grounded in the structural similarity between the African systems. Amongst other things this leads to gaps between the rhetoric of assessment reform and the reality of assessment practice. These persist despite consistent projections in the assessment literature (both national and international) and in externally supported curriculum and assessment projects of what should be valued, what should be assessed, and what may be relevant to future employment.     

The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?

We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, an-     

What Does Teaching in Samoan Bilingual Classrooms Look Like？ Observations as Evidence-Based From a New Zealand Professional Learning and Development Perspective

This paper reports on the instructional practice of teachers who have similar language and culture as their students in a bilingual cluster （Cluster A） involving three schools and seven teachers in delivering the curriculum to year 0 （5-year-old） to year 8 （12/13-year-old） students. The 30-40 minutes baseline observations conducted on teachers＇ instruction during a reading session were part of a Ministry of Education＇s （MOE） professional learning and development project （in progress） to increase student achievement in English literacy in these classrooms through evidence-based in-class facilitation. We hypothesized that teachers in these bilingual classes were perhaps not making optimal use of children＇s prior knowledge, particularly their linguistic and cultural strengths, to increase robust and in-depth oral discussions for understanding the texts during the reading lessons. The baseline observations were coded under exchanges known to enhance reading comprehension and specifically related to vocabulary, checking, incorporation, extended talk, awareness, and feedback, and were analyzed for the purposes of： （a） feeding back to teachers what their instruction looked like; （b） creating discussions around teachers＇ strengths and weaknesses that had arisen out of the instructional and student achievement data; and （c） identifying professional development needs for teachers and their students. It was found that teachers and students＇ discussions around a concept or word were limited and that students＇ oral strengths were not fully optimized for understanding. We report here the first phase involving Samoan teachers teaching Samoan students in Samoan bilingual classrooms. The second phase is in progress with the last phase starting midyear. The findings from these two phases will enable some discussions to be made around shifts in instructional practice, if any, their impact on student achievement and how these might be sustained.     

What Do Students’ Explanations Look Like When They Use Second-Hand Data?

Explanation studies underlined the importance of using evidence in support of claims. However, few studies have focused on students' use of others' data (second-hand data) in this process. In this study, students collected data from a local water source and then took all the data back to the classroom to create scientific explanations by using claim–evidence–reasoning model on a new mobile application. A middle school science teacher from a Midwest town participated with four sixth-grade classes. After collecting their own data from a local water source, students created explanations by analyzing the data they collected (first-hand data), and by analyzing existing data set collected by another school from another river (second-hand data). By analyzing the health of these two water sources, students created two scientific explanations. Students participating in this study created stronger explanations when analyzing the data they generated (first-hand data).     

Trajectories of Mentors’ Perceived Self-Efficacy during an Academic Mentoring Experience: What They Look Like and What are their Personal and Experimental Correlates?

In my study, mentors matched with college mentees evaluated their self-efficacy nine times, during their participation in an academic mentoring program. Three distinct groups emerged as follows: (a) mentors who perceived themselves as moderately efficient throughout the mentoring relationship (the moderate stable (MS) group), (b) mentors who considered themselves moderately efficient at the beginning of the match, and increasingly so as the relationship progressed (the increasing (IN) group), and (c) mentors who perceived themselves as very efficient at the beginning of the match, but who subsequently experienced slight fluctuations of their self-efficacy (the high unstable (HU) group). Several personal and experiential factors such as the mentors’ sensitivity to distress and the mentees’ parental autonomy support predicted the likelihood of belonging to the IN or HU groups (as opposed to the MS group). These findings are interpreted according to the premises of the self-efficacy theory. Implications for mentor selection and training are discussed.     

The International Adult Literacy Survey: What Does It Really Measure?

The paper evaluates the work of the International Adult Literacy Survey as reported in OECD 1997. It assesses its contribution to understanding literacy in terms of the perspective of the New Literacy Studies. It outlines this perspective as a basis for a critique that is mostly concerned with the validity of the test. Three criticisms of the survey are made: that it provides only a partial picture of literacy; that culture is treated as bias; and that the test items do not represent the real-life items as claimed. Finally, the paper concludes with an overall evaluation of what the IALS achieves in terms of its own aims.     

What Does It Take to Become a CPT?

Many performance improvement professionals are considering seeking the Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) certification offered by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). This article provides an overview of factors for potential CPTs to consider: adherence to the standards and ethics code as well as the interrelationships of professional principles and personality traits. Prospective CPTs are encouraged to include a self‐assessment as part of their considerations related to acquiring CPT certification.     

What Does It Mean to Be an Educated Person?

Winner of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Student Essay Competition 2009 ¹ 1. The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Student Essay Competition takes place each year. The winner receives a prize and is offered free attendance at the subsequent Annual Conference of the Society, held at New College Oxford. For details see: http://www.philosophy‐of‐education.org/students/default.asp .
The competition question ‘What Does It Mean To Be An Educated Person?’ is associated with a powerful and influential line of thought in the philosophy of R. S. Peters. It is a question that needs always to be asked again. I respond by asking what it means, now, to be an educated person—that is, how the value of being an educated person is currently understood, and, further, how it might be understood differently. The starting point of this paper then is not exactly the question of how we should best conceive of education, or of the educated person, in terms, for example, of initiation or of moral development. Instead I am concerned with who the supposedly educated person is today, according to the particular discourses and practices to which we are subject. I begin, then, by outlining the notion of the entrepreneurial self from the perspective of governmentality, with particular reference to questions of economy and the way in which the economic imperative is present in current policy. I then reconsider the idea of the educated person with reference to notions of economy and visibility as these relate to ideas of education and the self in Plato's The Republic. Discussion of readings of The Republic and of other texts of Plato by Stanley Cavell and Michel Foucault indicates how prevailing constructions of knowledge, practice, and subjectivity might be resisted. The question of what it means to be an educated person is thereby released from a particular mode of accounting for the self.