Assessing students' disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding of global carbon cycling

Global carbon cycling describes the movement of carbon through atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere; it lies at the heart of climate change and sustainability. To understand the global carbon cycle, students will require interdisciplinary knowledge. While standards documents in science education have long promoted interdisciplinary understanding, our current science education system is still oriented toward single‐discipline‐based learning. Furthermore, there is limited work on interdisciplinary assessment. This article presents the validated Interdisciplinary Science Assessment of Carbon Cycling (ISACC), and reports empirical results of a study of high school and undergraduate students, including an analysis of the relationship between interdisciplinary items and disciplinary items. Many‐faceted Rasch analysis produced detailed information about the relative difficulty of items and estimates of ability levels of students. One‐way ANCOVA was used to analyze differences among three grade levels: high school, college Freshman–Sophomore, college Junior–Senior, with number of science courses as a covariate. Findings indicated significantly higher levels of interdisciplinary understanding among the Freshman–Sophomore group compared to high school students. There was no statistically significant difference between Freshman–Sophomore group and Junior–Senior group. Items assessing interdisciplinary understanding were more difficult than items assessing disciplinary understanding of global carbon cycling; however, interdisciplinary and disciplinary understanding were strongly correlated. This study highlights the importance of interdisciplinary understanding in learning carbon cycling and discusses its potential impacts on science curriculum and teaching practices.     

英国基础教育质量标准《国家课程》及监控系统

《国家课程》是英国全国性的基础教育质量标准,其涵盖5-16岁儿童四个关键阶段14门课程的标准及九个学业评价表现水平划分。为确保"标准"切实落实,推行配套的"国家测评",成立相应管理机构,制订出台相关问责章程,是支持这一系统工程顺利运行的必要措施。当前,英国基础教育质量标准体系在制订与实施,设计与编制,管理与问责既显示出特色又反映出问题,为学者持续探讨提供空间。     

跨学科性与大学转型

大学是人类知识生产和跨学科研究的主要阵地。伴随着学科研究向跨学科研究的转型,社会出现了要求传统大学向跨学科大学转型的呼声。与传统大学相比,跨学科大学不仅在组织机构、制度安排上具有跨学科性的特点,而且在专业设置、课程开设、教学方式、学习方法等诸多方面也自身的特征。     

Teacher training and teacher education in England and Norway: a comparative study of policy goals

In this paper, we examine the complementary and differing state‐defined roles of beginning schoolteachers in England and Norway by investigating centrally mandated initial teacher preparation programmes in both countries. Through comparative analysis, we get to see the roles that the policy‐makers in London and Oslo seek to confer upon the educators of future generations of schoolchildren, as well as exploring opportunities for cross‐cultural policy learning. In broad terms, we found that centrally prescribed initial teacher training in England is, as its name implies, a training model that seeks to induct trainee teachers into the practical skills and willingness necessary for: instructing pupils in National Curriculum subjects, managing classroom activities, setting homework to consolidate and extend classroom work and providing pupils with a safe learning environment. Centrally prescribed initial teacher education in Norway is, as its name implies, an educative model whose goal is to help student teachers to: reflect and act upon the practical implications of educational theory, instruct pupils in National Curriculum subjects, display leadership in the classroom, act as a member of a caring profession, promote Norwegian values and provide pupils with a safe learning environment.     

Using communities of practice to enhance interdisciplinary teaching: lessons from four Australian institutions

We report on the establishment of communities of practice at four Australian institutions and evaluate their effectiveness and durability as a means of building staff and institutional capacity for interdisciplinary teaching. A community of practice approach is a potentially valuable methodology for overcoming dynamics of fragmentation, isolation and competition within universities. The communities we established were anchored by a shared focus on the topic of climate change and they worked collaboratively to build relationships of trust and reciprocity between teachers in a wide range of disciplines. The aim of each community was to improve the teaching of climate change through enabling members to integrate diverse disciplinary perspectives, to teach collaboratively, to promote innovation through exchange and to demonstrate leadership within their institutions. The key factors that made our communities effective and durable are: (1) designation of two leadership roles, activator and facilitator, (2) provision for institutional autonomy in domesticating the model to fit local circumstances and (3) a pragmatic emphasis on opportunities for teaching innovation and leadership within existing administrative structures, teaching programs and workloads. We conclude that suitably designed and resourced communities of practice are a viable means of improving interdisciplinary teaching of complex problems by facilitating both staff development and institutional learning.     

TALKING GEOGRAPHY: an investigation into young children's understanding of geographical terms PART 1

This research investigates the understanding by children of seven years of age of certain geographical terms. These terms are selected from the programme of study for geography for Key Stage 1 within the English National Curriculum (this approximates to the first two years of compulsory schooling in England ie. from 5 to 7 years). These terms represent some of the basic geographical concepts which teachers are required to teach at this stage. The interviews took place prior to the implementation of the English National Curriculum for Geography, in June 1991, and further interviewing is now being undertaken after two years’ implementation of the Curriculum to enable comparisons to be made. The initial findings clearly indicate that children of this age have considerable difficulty with some concepts and that even vernacular terms are often misunderstood. The research provides useful insight into the language young children currently use to describe geographical features. The ways in which young children respond to this type of questioning are discussed in relation to assessment and a preliminary analysis is made of the implications of the outcomes of the study for the teaching of geography to young children.     

Investigating agentive urban learning: an assembly of situated experiences for sustainable futures

ABSTRACT

In this article we explore the dynamic between the pedagogical and the urban, attending to ‘agentive urban learning’. By this we mean processes by which young people build agency in the urban context, in using the resources of the city to develop their own agency, and of developing agency to act within the city. By agency, we refer to the capacity to imagine and act to create individual and collective futures. Our interest is how young people develop such agentive urban learning themselves and how it might be enhanced pedagogically at school and university. Three case studies explore different facets—the first how young people themselves develop this agency in situated settings and the tools that they use to reflect upon the future; the second how digital tools might be used to enhance students’ understanding of the city as a site of change, in this instance, climate change; and the third how such agency might be developed collectively in partnership with other city dwellers. We conclude that a diversity of students’ engagement in urban contexts of learning offers ways from which to further investigate how identity, setting, and stakeholder relationships matter as part of potentially sustainable agentive learning futures.     

Verbal and behavioral cues: creating an autonomy-supportive classroom

A teacher network was formed at an Australian university in order to better promote interdisciplinary student learning on the complex social-environmental problem of climate change. Rather than leaving it to students to piece together disciplinary responses, eight teaching academics collaborated on the task of exposing students to different types of knowledge in a way that was more than the summing of disciplinary parts. With a part-time network facilitator providing cohesion, network members were able to teach into each other's classes, and share material and student activities across a range of units that included business, zoology, marine science, geography and education. Participants reported that the most positive aspects of the project were the collegiality and support for teaching innovation provided by peers. However, participants also reported being time-poor and overworked. Maintaining the collaboration beyond the initial one year project proved difficult because without funding for the network facilitator, participants were unable to dedicate the time required to meet and collaborate on shared activities. In order to strengthen teacher collaboration in a university whose administrative structures are predominantly discipline-based, there is need for recognition of the benefits of interdisciplinary learning to be matched by recognition of the need for financial and other resources to support collaborative teaching initiatives.     

探索MOOCs与现实课堂结合的教学模式——系统科学与圣塔菲网络课程的个案研究

从世界前沿的发展来看,MOOCs有三个值得关注的趋势：即把线上线下（020）的课程创新与体验有机结合起来;研究学科的特点和差异;注重方法的探索及方法论的创新。如何将三者有效整合,是当前推动MOOCs研究与实践深化发展所面临的一个重要课题。基于此．特意把圣塔菲研究所开设的两门MOOCs课程作为个案进行研究,基于跨学科的方法论视角、以师生对话的形式,展现了在网络课程新时空中教师和学生各自的体验、不同背景学习者之间的优势互补,揭示了信息时代建立教学相长、能者为师之新型师生关系和跨学科师生团队的重要性。特别是复杂性研究中所使用的建模工具NetLogo,此类“新工具”在网络课程新时空中开展跨学科研究和研究性学习的独特作用。Moocs是一个复杂的社会系统工程,复杂性研究、尤其是自组织理论等新思维及其方法论在MooCs研究乃至教育理论与实践创新发展中的价值和意义日益凸显,若以此指导MooCs与现实课堂的双向互动、协同创新,对实现教育信息化进程中的“深度融合”具有重要意义。     

Using Wicked problems to foster interdisciplinary practice among UK trainee teachers

ABSTRACT

An uncertain world characterised by the complexity associated with ‘Wicked’ problems presents formidable challenges for the preparation of teachers. This paper reports on one cycle in a larger action research project in which subject specialist trainee teachers worked in inter-disciplinary groups to design and run classroom-based workshops on climate change for pupils aged 12–14. While the project sought to explore interdisciplinary working, subject specialisms and their values were not abandoned, recognising that diversity can lead to more powerful, collective knowledge being generated. The Wicked problem of climate change was initially examined from different subject perspectives, identifying the opportunities that the work afforded in each subject, along with the challenges that accompanied them. The findings suggest that trainee teachers valued the collaboration and the opportunity to develop different pedagogical approaches used by different subjects. The framing of the project around a Wicked problem supported trainee teachers in understanding that no one subject had an authoritative prerogative over the topic while the disquiet that the interdisciplinary project provoked, in some cases, served to instigate new transformative learning which stretched beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.     

Rethinking role play in the Reception class

How to monitor and raise standards of educational attainment generally were issues addressed by the British Government in 1988 when the National Curriculum was introduced into all state‐funded primary schools in England and Wales: ‘There is every reason for optimism that in providing a sound, sufficiently detailed framework over the next decade the National Curriculum will give children and teachers much needed help in achieving higher standards.’ This paper assesses the value of looking closely at successive reading scores of cohorts of children in order to monitor reading attainments over time. The reading attainments of seven cohorts of Year 2 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one local education authority (LEA) (N = 1,329) are analysed to see if standards of literacy have changed since the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1989. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used in this cross‐sectional study. The reading attainments of each of the seven cohorts of Year 2 children, as measured by the are presented. Headteacher perceptions of the effects of the National Curriculum on the teaching and learning of reading in their schools were collected through interviews. Examination of the means of the standardized comprehension scores for each cohort reveals no statistically significant differences in attainment between any two cohorts. It was noted that the distribution of the reading scores was skewed towards underachievement in all seven cohorts. The relative stability in reading attainments contrasts with the aspiration that the introduction of the National Curriculum would raise standards. Headteachers saw this stability as the result of key stage 1 teachers working at an intense rate to safeguard the teaching and learning of reading against the pressures exerted by the introduction of the National Curriculum and assessment procedures.     

Leadership and The Effective School

The article examines the origins and purposes of assessment for learning (AfL) within the National Curriculum Assessment context in England. As a part of the Primary Strategy, AfL became part of the government's drive to improve standards through measuring school outcomes. The authors describe their investigation into teachers' understandings of AfL, how AfL has influenced teaching, learning and assessment in the intervening six years and whether it has established a presence as part of teaching pedagogy.     

Developing a Holistic Assessment Stance in Student Teachers

Over the last 10 years far-reaching changes have been introduced to the education system of England and Wales. In particular, the curriculum in state schools has been prescribed through the introduction of a National Curriculum. Associated with the National Curriculum is an assessment system involving teachers undertaking the on-going assessment of pupils, as well as externally set national tests, the results of which are published. These changes have had a profound effect on the training needs of in-service teachers and on the content and structure of training courses for pre-service teachers. The assessment system linked to the National Curriculum is extremely complex. There are huge demands on the time available for pre-service teacher training. This means that teacher educators struggle to find valid ways to train students to develop good assessment practices that will enhance students' teaching and the learning achieved by their pupils. This paper reports on the attempts of one group of course tutors to develop a means of achieving this goal.     

Pedagogy,information and communications technology and teachers' professional knowledge

In this article UK governmental policy imperatives to apply new forms of information and communications technology (ICT) to school improvement are explored, with particular reference to the National Curriculum for England and Wales. The analysis juxtaposes the piecemeal, random way in which ICT is used in National Curriculum programmes of study and schemes of work with the government rhetoric that requires coherent planning and integration of ICT within all aspects of teaching learning. The article argues that this contradiction within the policy process could be overcome if a stronger conceptualization of teachers' professional knowledge was embraced. An example of such a conceptualization is presented and this is exemplified by accounts of teachers' development of ICT within their pedagogic practice.     

Simulating scientific thinking online: an example of research‐led teaching

In the contemporary higher education system there is growing interest in, and debate about, the need to strengthen and sustain the relationships between teaching and research. While there are multiple and varied explanations about these relationships, most acknowledge the importance of designing learning activities that explicitly develop the research–teaching nexus: a methodology known as research‐led teaching. The paper illustrates the integration of a research‐led teaching approach in an online context, using an ocean (climate) model simulation activity in two undergraduate units as a case study. The modelling activity draws on disciplinary research as the underpinning content and stimulus for learning, and incorporates tasks designed to simulate scientific thinking as well as facilitate understanding of abstract concepts about the ocean (and atmosphere) climate system. It also demonstrates a research‐led teaching activity that has been successfully applied in different disciplinary contexts, physical geography (atmospheric science sub‐discipline) and physics.     

Expecting the unexpected: engaging diverse young people in conversations around science

The issue of limited engagement with science for young people from Indigenous, minority and lower socio-economic groups in Australia appears to have been sidelined from the mainstream debate around falling rates of engagement with science at the secondary schooling level. The ‘closing the gap’ mantra of education policy in Australia has seen an extraordinary focus on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous students, which, while valuable, has subsumed the importance of other key learning areas including science. Teachers are soon to be expected to incorporate Indigenous Perspectives within the science subjects of the new Australian National Curriculum yet appear to be under-resourced to meet this challenge to traditional approaches to science teaching. The purpose of this paper is to explore the pedagogy of a teacher working at an alternative secondary schooling site in North Queensland Australia who volunteered to modify his teaching of science to explicitly incorporate Indigenous Perspectives. The qualitative data collected through classroom observation and teacher interviews demonstrates the complex and multi-faceted nature of the science education experience when traditional pedagogical boundaries are dismantled to allow for a drawing upon of the lived experiences of diverse young people. The teacher’s ability to embrace this broader vision of science is linked to the inclusive culture of the alternative school environment that is brought into being through a ‘common ground’ philosophy of mutual respect and democratic relations.     

A different view of literacy

The Equals Formal Curriculum English Scheme of Work has been designed for that very small percentage of the school population, perhaps as low as one or two per cent, who have global learning difficulties (GLD) to such a degree that they are consistently working at levels significantly below their age-related peers for all of their academic lives. The term GLD includes all those in England currently ascribed as having severe learning difficulties (SLD) and many if not most, currently ascribed as having moderate learning difficulties (MLD). Evidence of the difficulties faced by such pupils will become increasingly obvious beyond Year 1 at age 6, because the difficulties are global rather than specific. That is, they are likely to affect all learning, but will be particularly apparent in numeracy and literacy. This paper, the first of two, seeks to clarify why reading and writing are so extraordinarily difficult for this population and posits that the answers lie in challenging perceived wisdoms within the education system’s predilections towards (i) regarding phonics as the only solution to reading difficulties (ii) persisting over time (and in the face of evidence to the contrary) with the view that children, young people and adults with GLD can make sufficient progress within phonics teaching and (iii) the use of differentiation of a standardised national curriculum model as being a sufficient answer to global learning difficulties. Clearly the main language used in England is English, but the principles and ideas outlined in this paper should apply in any language which uses a phonic structure when teaching language.     

Disciplinary and interdisciplinary affiliations of experienced researchers

This article reports on a study of senior academics’ views of their disciplinary and interdisciplinary affiliations. It questions the idea that academics have a firm and fixed disciplinary identity from which they then act and suggests that academic work in the contemporary university challenges and changes how individuals view their disciplinary affiliation. The article provides empirical data that lends weight to critical questioning of anthropological metaphors, which have tended to dominate discussions of disciplinarity. It suggests that contemporary understandings of disciplinary and interdisciplinary identity need more fluid metaphors and models; ones that can capture the shifting and questioning uncertainties that give expression to the rhetorical and reflexive nature of academics’ disciplinary affiliations. The article explores the implications of a dominant emphasis on disciplinary relationships for understanding disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity and examines the practical implications for structures and systems that are designed to enhance and evaluate research and teaching within higher education.     

Teaching and Learning in Interdisciplinary Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Interdisciplinary higher education aims to develop boundary-crossing skills, such as interdisciplinary thinking. In the present review study, interdisciplinary thinking was defined as the capacity to integrate knowledge of two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement in ways that would have been impossible or unlikely through single disciplinary means. It was considered as a complex cognitive skill that constituted of a number of subskills. The review was accomplished by means of a systematic search within four scientific literature databases followed by a critical analysis. The review showed that, to date, scientific research into teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education has remained limited and explorative. The research advanced the understanding of the necessary subskills of interdisciplinary thinking and typical conditions for enabling the development of interdisciplinary thinking. This understanding provides a platform from which the theory and practice of interdisciplinary higher education can move forward.     

Special Needs, Special Issues

Services for children and young people with special educational needs are not well prepared for responding to the National Curriculum, local management of schools and other challenges of the 1990s. This is the conclusion drawn by HM Inspectorate (HMI) in the latest booklet in their Education Observed series entitled Special Needs Issues. The survey, which was published by the HMSO in June at £2.95, looks at developments in special educational provision which have occurred in England since the publication of the Warnock Report in 1978.