Connecting teacher development and school improvement: ironic consequences of a preservice action research course

This article describes the author's attempts to strengthen connections between teacher development and school improvement in a preservice course requirement. The context is an action research course taught during the final semester of a two-year masters degree, cohort program. Hired into the school system as full-time instructional assistants, students in the course were more knowledgeable about and more integrated into the life of their schools than traditional student teachers. While the course goals were partially successful, ironic consequences occurred. Students could not study simultaneously their own teaching and school improvement efforts. By documenting what went on in the course, examining text materials, and analyzing school contexts, the author finds some answers in the ways in which teaching is conceptualized and institutionalized.     

Talking about science: An interpretation of the effects of teacher talk in a high school science classroom

This paper builds on research in science education, secondary education, and sociolinguistics by arguing that high school classrooms can be considered speech communities in which language may be selectively used and imposed on students as a means of fostering academic speech community identification. To demonstrate the ways in which a high school teacher's language use may encourage subject area identification, the results of an interactionist analysis of data from a 2-year ethnographic study of one high school chemistry classroom are presented. Findings indicate that this teacher's uses of language fell into three related categories. These uses of language served to foster identification with the academic speech community of science. As a result of the teacher's talk about science according to these three patterns, students developed or reinforced particular views of science. In addition, talking about science in ways that fostered identity with the discipline promoted the teacher as expert and built classroom solidarity or community. These results are discussed in light of sociolinguistic research on classroom competence and of the assertions of science educators regarding social and ideologic implications of language use in science instruction.     

Junior high school science teacher preparation,teaching behavior,and student achievement

The findings challenge both practices and prejudices in junior high school science teacher preparation.     

Bioinformatics in high school biology curricula: a study of state science standards

The proliferation of bioinformatics in modern biology marks a modern revolution in science that promises to influence science education at all levels. This study analyzed secondary school science standards of 49 U.S. states (Iowa has no science framework) and the District of Columbia for content related to bioinformatics. The bioinformatics content of each state's biology standards was analyzed and categorized into nine areas: Human Genome Project/genomics, forensics, evolution, classification, nucleotide variations, medicine, computer use, agriculture/food technology, and science technology and society/socioscientific issues. Findings indicated a generally low representation of bioinformatics-related content, which varied substantially across the different areas, with Human Genome Project/genomics and computer use being the lowest (8%), and evolution being the highest (64%) among states' science frameworks. This essay concludes with recommendations for reworking/rewording existing standards to facilitate the goal of promoting science literacy among secondary school students.     

高中英语测试原则与方法研究

中学英语教师教学测试况调查和高中二年级期末考试试卷分析的结果表明：高考对高中教学与测试有着直接的导向作用；高中英语教学中存在着成绩测试与高考、课堂教学与高考应试练习之间的定位问题：中学英语教师需要学习一些英语语言测试的基本原则和方法。     

The psychosocial experience of high school girls highly susceptible to stereotype threat: A phenomenological study

The author used phenomenology to explore the subjective experience of ninth-grade girls susceptible to mathematics-related stereotype threat in their authentic learning environments. The sample constituted students categorized as either having low or high susceptibility to stereotype threat (SST) enrolled in Honors mathematics classes at an urban high school in the Northeast United States. Results showed that high-SST students experienced a wide range of negative emotions regarding both mathematics and its learning context. Emotions commonly experienced by this group included low self-efficacy and hopelessness specific to learning mathematics, frustration, and feelings of isolation (both social and intellectual) in their classes. Experiences common to these students were perceived differential teacher treatment, and stereotype endorsement linking mathematics ability to fixed traits such as race or genetics. Low-SST students, on the other hand, experienced positive relationships with their teachers, positive schooling experiences, and a malleable view of intelligence.     

Negotiating science and engineering: an exploratory case study of a reform-minded science teacher

Engineering has been slowly integrated into K-12 science classrooms in the United States as the result of recent science education reforms. Such changes in science teaching require that a science teacher is confident with and committed to content, practices, language, and cultures related to both science and engineering. However, from the perspective of the science teacher, this would require not only the development of knowledge and pedagogies associated with engineering, but also the construction of new identities operating within the reforms and within the context of their school. In this study, a middle school science teacher was observed and interviewed over a period of nine months to explore his experiences as he adopted new values, discourses, and practices and constructed his identity as a reform-minded science teacher. Our findings revealed that, as the teacher attempted to become a reform-minded science teacher, he constantly negotiated his professional identities – a dynamic process that created conflicts in his classroom practices. Several differences were observed between the teacher’s science and engineering instruction: hands-on activities, depth and detail of content, language use, and the way the teacher positioned himself and his students with respect to science and engineering. Implications for science teacher professional development are discussed.     

Junior high school science transformed: analysing a science curriculum policy change

In response to a governmental initiative associated with expanding the technological infrastructure of its economy, the Canadian province of Alberta undertook extensive revision of its secondary school science programme, starting in 1986. This paper is about the junior high school programme (Grades 7‐9, ages about 12‐15). The subject matter configuration was changed from a ‘layer‐cake’ design to a ‘coordinated’ design. The objectives were broadened to include three mandated curriculum emphases, distributed evenly across the 18 units of the three‐year programme. The paper examines these and other features of the development and implementation of this reasonably successful curriculum policy.     

A research model for the study of science teachers’ PCK and improving teacher education

In this article, a new research model for the study of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is presented which aims to improve teacher education. This model called “educational reconstruction for teacher education” (ERTE) represents the framework for an integrative approach to the study of science teachers’ topic specific PCK, which is a largely unexplored field. By integrating the PCK concept, originating in the American Curriculum tradition, into the German (Fach)didaktik tradition, this model adds a new perspective to (Fach)didaktik. This paper, therefore, also aims to clarify the PCK concept and its relation to Fachdidaktik.     

外语学科教育硕士培养与中学外语教师研究能力关系初探

中学外语教师转型成为教育研究者新一轮课程改革的主要目标之一。如何帮助一线教师成为研究型教师已经成为当前教师教育的一个要素。本研究以受过高校教育硕士学历培训的中学外语教师为研究对象,探讨学历培养与其教育科研能力之间的关系,并就此发现问题提出改进建议。     

A study of the quality of practitioner research in secondary education: impact on teacher and school development

This study provides insight into the quality of practitioner research and the impact of this on the professional development of the individual teacher and the school as a whole. We examined the quality of practitioner research in relation to the goals of the research. We operationalized the quality of the research in terms of the validities outlined by Anderson and Herr. In our study we apply this way of thinking to 11 cases of teacher research in secondary education. We found at least some evidence of outcome validity and catalytic validity for the teachers’ practitioner research. However, evidence of process validity and democratic validity was only found in some of the projects. We conclude that the approach adopted in this study can be more generally used to increase the quality and thereby the impact of practitioner research.