A Reinvented Union: A Concern for Teaching, Not Just Teachers

The current school reform movement, with its emphasis on teacher professionalism, teacher empowerment, and shared decision making, has challenged teachers unions to develop more collegial relations with school boards. Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, has called for the union to reinvent itself and to assume responsibility for improving school quality and the quality of the teaching force. This article discusses the development of teachers unions in the 1960s as adversaries of school boards. From the beginning the unions adopted an industrial model of labor relations, one tailored for factories and assembly lines rather than school environments. Today, there are signs that teachers unions are accepting Bob Chases vision of a more professional union, one in which union leaders and school leaders can become public allies in the struggle to improve schools.     

Impact of science-technology learning environment characteristics on learning outcomes: pupils’ perceptions and gender differences

Science and technology are connected to each other and are mutually inspiring. The science-technology curriculum for junior-high school in Israel suggests that teachers integrate these subjects. In addition, this curriculum calls for infusing thinking competencies into the learning subjects and for implementing alternatives in assessment methods in the classes. The current research included three stages: field research, pilot research and expanded research. In the field research, an intervention program was planned and implemented. The intervention program included a three-year inservice training workshop consisting of 224 hours each year. Quantitative and qualitative tools were used to assess teachers implementation of the intervention program. The findings revealed the characteristics of the science-technology learning environment and various learning outcomes. The pilot research enabled the development and validation of a questionnaire called the Science-Technology Learning Environment Questionnaire (STLEQ). The STLEQ was aimed at assessing teachers and pupils perceptions of learning environment. The conclusions from the pilot research showed differences between teachers and pupils perceptions towards the impact of learning environment characteristics on learning outcomes.In the expanded research, two cohorts of pupils participated, namely, the 2002 cohort (N = 207) and the 2003 cohort (N = 159). These cohorts had studied science-technology in junior-high school. The findings of the expanded research partly match the findings from the pilot research, leading to insight into the pupils perspective of the science-technology learning environment. No gender differences were found in pupils scoring of learning outcomes. On the other hand, boys scored higher than girls on Computer Usage. This research enables researchers and teachers to use the questionnaire in order to investigate pupils perceptions of their learning environment.     

Connecting Teacher Beliefs to the Use of Children’s Literature in the Teaching of Mathematics

This article presents examples that illustrate how teachers use childrens literature in the teaching of mathematics. The examples are related to four curriculum ideologies that have influenced mathematics education in the USA for the last 75 years. It discusses why it is relevant to help teachers understand the ideological positions that influence their use of childrens literature during mathematics instruction, summarizes the four ideological positions, and presents results of a study of how teachers ideological positions relate to their use of childrens literature in the teaching of mathematics. The study examines two research questionsCan an instructional tool be developed that will highlight for teachers the different ways in which they and others use childrens literature to teach mathematics? and Can that instructional tool stimulate teacher discussion and reflection about their own beliefs and the ideological nature of the instructional environment in which they learned (as students) and teach (as teachers)? Study results indicate that both questions can be answered in the affirmative.     

Visions for ICT, Ethics and the Practice of Teachers

The failure of educational computing is often attributed to deficiencies of practice: resisting teachers and lack of will, competence and sincerity on behalf of the teaching profession. But the complexity of school life and teachers work has been underestimated by the entrepreneurs of educational computing. Theoretically there is a need to approach this area from a different angle. We will suggest there is a need to reframe the issue of ICT in schools with educational policy and discourse with education, rather than with technology in mind. In order to reach that goal there is a need to inculcate technology as an ordinary part of teachers vocabulary about their own work and as a part of their professional ethos. Teachers need to examine the moral values inherent in their practices and use those values as bases for debate. Not taking up these issues and instead adopting defensive stances is dangerous to the profession. The danger is that defensiveness can be seen by others outside the school as rigidity and play into the hands of those who are impatient with teachers. It would serve teachers well if they had a more robust ability to communicate the nature of the difficulties they face and how they deal with them.     

Sensing the Impact of Elementary School Science Reform: A Study of Stakeholder Perceptions of Implementation,Constructivist Strategies,and School–Home Collaboration

This case study of a midwestern school districts reform effort explored the treatment fidelity of the Science: Parents, Activities, and Literature (Science PALs) project. Data were collected from the perspectives of three stakeholders: students, school district, and parents. Students and school district supervisors perceptions indicated that teachers were implementing predicted curricular and instructional features promoted by the Science PALs project. Students perceptions of their current teachers classroom performance did not parallel the supervisors perceptions of the teachers implementation. Parents perceptions and comments indicated a high level of satisfaction with the implemented features. Collectively, the three perspectives suggest that the Science PALs project was successful in changing the classroom practices of K–6 teachers involved in the professional development. The results of this study appear to support the findings of other recent studies that indicate the need for extended professional development and support to fully implement changes in elementary school science instruction.     

The Total Quality Initiative at South Bank University

The total quality initiative covers all aspects of the University's academic and support services, but only one of a number of different programmes is discussed in detail, the formulation of quality service agreements. The paper outlines both the theoretical basis and the practical implementation of the approach. Another programme, quality in teaching and learning, is also briefly outlined.The systematic examination and articulation of customer/supplier relationships lies at the core of South Bank's total quality approach, with quality being customer rather than system driven. The concept of the quality chain is developed to stress and demonstrate the interdependence of all staff in providing a high quality service to students.The customer/supplier relationship is founded on three aspects of quality-characteristics, standards and measurement of performance, all of which are dealt with in some detail.Thirty-two Customer/Supplier Working Groups are charged with the task of establishing detailed quality service agreements between academic schools and support departments the internal customers and suppliers, and between the schools as suppliers and their students (and other clients) as external customers.     

Analyzing children's errors on written mathematical tasks

Methods developed by Newman and Casey for analyzing errors made by children attempting verbal arithmetic problems are described, with particular emphasis being given to Newman's hierarchy of error causes. Data obtained by Newman, Casey, and Clements are presented. These show that a large proportion of errors made by children in grades 5–7 in Victoria on verbal arithmetic problems are in the Newman categories Comprehension, Transformation, Process Skills, and Carelessness.     

The cultural grid: A framework for multicultural counseling

The Cultural Grid suggests a structure for interpreting a person's behavior in the context of culturally learned expectations. When two persons' expectations are similar, but their behaviors are dissimilar, cross cultural misunderstanding is likely to result. When their expectations are dissimilar, the result is likely to be a personal misunderstanding even though their behaviors are similar. This article introduces a framework for differentiating personal and cultural differences in the interview which is essential for appropriate multicultural counseling. The alternatives are to allow apparent and obvious cultural differences to mask underlying personal differences or to incorrectly assume that two persons who appear culturally similar are having a personal disagreement.     

“Without Contraries is no Progression”: Dust as an All-Inclusive, Multifunctional Metaphor in Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials”

Drawing on John Milton's Paradise Lost and on motifs found within Gnostic mythology and the poetry of William Blake, this article explores Philip Pullman's reworking of the Judeo-Christian myth of the Fall. At the centre of this investigation is Dust: a conventional metaphor for human physicality inspired by God's judgment on humanity. This article suggests that Dust is re-presented in the trilogy in a more positive manner through the development of Milton's metaphor of the dark materials into a substance in which good and evil, and spirit and matter—conceptual opposites that form the basis of religious dualism—coexist.     

Idealisation and Galileo’s Pendulum Discoveries: Historical, Philosophical and Pedagogical Considerations

Galileos discovery of the properties of pendulum motion depended on his adoption of the novel methodology of idealisation. Galileos laws of pendulum motion could not be accepted until the empiricist methodological constraints placed on science by Aristotle, and by common sense, were overturned. As long as scientific claims were judged by how the world was immediately seen to behave, and as long as mathematics and physics were kept separate, then Galileos pendulum claims could not be substantiated; the evidence was against them. Proof of the laws required not just a new science, but a new way of doing science, a new way of handling evidence, a new methodology of science. This was Galileos method of idealisatioin. It was the foundation of the Galilean–Newtonian Paradigm which characterised the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century, and the subsequent centuries of modern science. As the pendulum was central to Galileos and Newtons physics, appreciating the role of idealisation in their work is an instructive way to learn about the nature of science.     

Culturally appropriate means and ends of counselling as described by the First Nations people of British Columbia

This paper focuses on one aspect of the author's Ph.D. dissertation which examined the facilitation of healing for First Nations people of British Columbia Canada. the research finding discussed in this paper is that the means and ends of counselling for First Nations people differ from those of the Western therapeutic approaches utilized by the majority culture in Canada. These differences are illustrated by the First Nations world view and the unique goals of healing for First Nations people. it is necessary for counsellors to be responsive to these goals if they are to be effective in working with Native people (Please note that the terms First Nations, Native, and Aboriginal are used interchangeably to refer to the same people).     

Assumptions Underlying Performance-Based Budgeting

Interest in performance budgeting is growing despite a lack of research on its effectiveness. U.S. states have largely used incremental and formula budgeting processes to fund higher education. However, more than half of them are experimenting with some form of performance budgeting. There have been similar attempts to reform budget practices in the U.S. in the past, but most of these processes have been largely abandoned. Governmental performance budgeting for higher education assumes policy objectives are stable, complex decisions on budget trade-offs can be made at governmental levels on the basis of data, institutions operate as bureaucracies, resources can be linked to outcomes, outcomes are identifiable and can be agreed upon, accountability can be achieved through budget policies, and current practices create incentives to enrol unqualified students. These assumptions are not realistic. Consequently, performance budgeting will not meet proponents expectations and will suffer the fate of past budget fads.     

The Pseudo-Conceptual and the Pseudo-Analytical Thought Processes in Mathematics Learning

This paper suggests a theoretical framework to deal with some well known phenomena in mathematical behavior. Assuming that the notions conceptual and analytical are clear enough in the domain of mathematical thinking, the notions pseudo-conceptual and pseudo-analytical are proposed and explained. Examples from mathematics classrooms, mathematics exams, and homework assignments are analyzed and discussed within the proposed theoretical framework.The notions pseudo-conceptual and pseudo-analytical proposed in this paper, actually narrow the extension of the notion cognitive by restricting it to the domain of meaningful contexts. Analysis of meaningless behaviors, it is claimed, requires a different theoretical framework. The attempt to analyze meaningless behaviors in the same way as meaningful behaviors is called here the cognitive approach fallacy.     

Hierarchies in mathematics education

In mathematics education literature the term hierarchy is used in a number of ways. It is important that the mathematics educator consider the usefulness of the hierarchies presented by various researchers and theorists, in the light of their application to teaching. Current works on mathematical learning hierarchies are illustrated and in particular the work of the mathematics team of the research project Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science is examined.     

‘... for more and better religious education’

Mahner and Bunge argue that (1) science and religion are incompatible, in order to develop their thesis, that (2) a religious education ... is an obstacle to the development of a scientific mentality, and that therefore we should only teach our children (3) how science explains the existence of religion in historical, biological, psychological and sociological terms, and that (4) religious education should be kept away from public schools ... I offer brief comments on each of these strands of their argument. Religionists, to use Mahner and Bunge's term, generally come from a specific stance so I shall make it clear, from the outset, that these remarks come from a Christian standpoint, even though many of them are much more widely applicable. Although I agree with some of the observations which Mahner and Bunge make, my conclusions are generally opposite to theirs on each of the four points.     

‘La Maîtresse dit que je suis lent’: Représentation de l'école française dans le discours d'élèves immigrés

Résumé Les difficultés scolaires éprouvées par les élèves immigrés ont été généralement étudiées en mettant l'accent sur leurs carences ou sur les stratégies d'adaptation dont ils se servent. Le travail qu'on présente ici vise à renverser cette optique — en inserant cette problématique dans le cadre théorique de la Transculturation, et en étudiant la façon dont ces élèves perçoivent l'institution scolaire.Une étude de l'énonciation porte sur 101 entretiens dans la langue d'origine, avec des sujets hispanophones et lusitanophones, garçons et filles, âgés de 10 à 17 dans.Sur la base d'une analyse statistique informatisée on a établi des indices visant à saisir (a) les rapports chercheur/sujet dans l'entretien; (b) les liens qui rattachent l'individu à son groupe (moi — nous); (c) sa perception de l'autre; et (d) la façon dont il se situe par rapport à son expérience (assumée ou subie, actant ou acté). Des mots-clé illustrent et soulignent les difficultés éprouvées par ces sujets et par l'institution scolaire pour appréhender les normes temporelles comme un modelage culturel et en saisir leur relativité.

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The difficulties of immigrant children at school have generally been studied with the emphasis either on their deficiencies or on the schemes which they devise to enable them to adapt. The study which is presented here, however, aims at a radically different approach by viewing the problem within the theoretical framework of transculturation and by examining the way in which the pupils themselves perceive the French school system.A study is made of the outcome of 101 interviews which were conducted in their mother tongue with Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking boys and girls aged between 10 and 17 years old.On the basis of statistical analysis by computer, indices were formulated with the intention of establishing (a) the relationship between the researcher and the subject during the interview; (b) the links between the subject as an individual and his/her peer-group (me — us); (c) his/her perception of others; and (d) the way in which he/she relates to his/her experience (as something to be positively accepted — or to be suffered; active or passive). Keywords illustrate and underline the difficulties encountered both by pupils and by the school to grasp the idea of time norms as a cultural shaping and to perceive how relative they are.

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Zusammenfassung Die schulischen Schwierigkeiten von Einwandererkindern sind allgemein entweder mit Schwerpunkt auf ihren Unzulänglichkeiten oder auf den von ihnen gewählten Anpassungsstrategien untersucht worden. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung jedoch wird ein radikal anderer Ansatz beabsichtigt, indem das Problem innerhalb eines theoretischen Bezugsrahmens der Transkulturation betrachtet und indem die Art und Weise geprüft wird, die die Schüler selbst dem französischen Schulsystem gegenüber empfinden.Die Studie wurde aufgrund von 101 Interviews von in ihrer Muttersprache spanisch- und portugiesisch-sprechenden Jungen und Mädchen im Alter von 10 bis 17 Jahren erstellt.Auf der Grundlage statistischer computergestützter Analyse, wurden Indices mit der Absicht formuliert, folgendes nachzuweisen: (a) die Beziehung zwischen dem wissenschaftlichen Befrager und dem Befragten während des Interviews; (b) die Verbindungen zwischen dem Befragten als einem Individuum zu seiner/ihrer Gruppe von Gleichaltrigen (ich — uns); (c) seine/ihre Wahrnehmung der Anderen; und (d) die Art und Weise auf der er/sie sich in Beziehung zu seiner/ihrer Erfahrung sieht (als etwas, das als positiv erleb wird, oder an dem man leitet; aktiv oder passiv). Schlüsselworte veranschaulichen und unterstreichen die Schwierigkeiten, auf die sowohl die Schüler als auch die Schule stossen, um die Vorstellung der Zeitnormen als Kulturform zu begreifen, und um ihre Relativität zu empfinden.

     

Research and scholarship: Perceptions of senior academic administrators

This paper reports selected findings from the first stage of a study on the research role within academic work in Australian universities. These findings come from the interview component of the study and discuss the perceptions that senior academic administrators hold on research and scholarship. The analysis of the interviews indicates that research covers a wide and varied range of activities across the disciplines found in a university and therefore needs to be defined broadly. However, research has three major attributes: new knowledge, enquiry and publication of results and views. Scholarship was perceived to be part of the research process, providing the context for good research by adding the element of breadth to the depth of research. In addition, scholarship describes the manner of pursuing a serious, sustained line of enquiry as well as the dissemination process.     

The concepts of science in Japanese and Western education

Using structural linguistics, the present article offers an impartial frame of reference to analyze science education in the non-Western world. In Japan, science education has been free from epistemological reflection because Japan regards science only as effective technology for modernization. By not taking account of the world-view aspect of science, Japan can treat science as not self-referential. Issues of science education are then rather simple; they are only concerned with the question of how to, and answers to this question are judged according to the efficiency achieved for modernization.Science, however, is a way of seeing nature. This word is generally translated into Japanese as shizen which has a totally different connotation and therefore does not lead to an understanding of the Western scientific spirit. Saussure's approach to language is used to expose the consequences of the misinterpretations that spring from this situation. In order to minimize or prevent these misinterpretations, it is emphasized that science education should be identified with foreign language education in the non-Western world.     

Socialist mathematics education: Does it exist?

A recent book by Frank Swetz and others has postulated the existence of the phenomenon socialist mathematics education. In this paper we consider critically Swet's arguments and assertions and suggest an alternative methodology whereby one might attempt to describe socialist mathematics education.     

Women in higher education

The high level of admissions of women into higher education in Japanis analysed in the context of examining revised views about the highereducation of women resulting from changes in the traditional view of therelationship between higher education and social values. Despite the shiftin womens educational expectations, there is still clear evidence that agender track continues; typically men congregate in four year institutionswhilst women focus on Junior Colleges and on particular courses of studydeemed to be appropriate for women. The gender track is furtherdemonstrated by detailed studies of the Junior College and the WomensCollege. Womens employment opportunities are shown to have been affected byrestrictive attitudes of employers which tended in the past to impose onwomen particular modes of employment. The reasons for the emergence of achange in these attitudes in the latter part of the 1980s are explored andthe impact of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1986 is examined. Thearticle concludes by considering the wider implications for women, both inthe work-place and in society more generally, of these developments. It isnoted that highly educated Japanese women tend to hold more conservativevalues and may see their education as an expression of their social statusrather than a way of increasing their earning power. The recentestablishment of a number of courses in Womens Studies may well have aninfluence upon future developments in ideas about women and higher educationin Japan.