Content-Related Knowledge of Biology Teachers from Secondary Schools: Structure and learning opportunities

Teachers’ content-related knowledge is a key factor influencing the learning progress of students. Different models of content-related knowledge have been proposed by educational researchers; most of them take into account three categories: content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge. As there is no consensus about the empirical separability (i.e. empirical structure) of content-related knowledge yet, a total of 134 biology teachers from secondary schools completed three tests which were to capture each of the three categories of content-related knowledge. The empirical structure of content-related knowledge was analyzed by Rasch analysis, which suggests content-related knowledge to be composed of (1) content knowledge, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, and (3) curricular knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge and curricular knowledge are highly related (r_latent?=?.70). The latent correlations between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (r_latent?=?.48)—and curricular knowledge, respectively (r_latent?=?.35)—are moderate to low (all ps?<?.001). Beyond the empirical structure of content-related knowledge, different learning opportunities for teachers were investigated with regard to their relationship to content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge acquisition. Our results show that an in-depth training in teacher education, professional development, and teacher self-study are positively related to particular categories of content-related knowledge. Furthermore, our results indicate that teaching experience is negatively related to curricular knowledge, compared to no significant relationship with content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.     

Science curriculum effects in high school: A quantitative synthesis

To assess the impact of the innovative precollege science curricula of the past twenty years on learning, a search was conducted using the computer-assisted Bibliographic Retrieval System (BRS), the ERIC Annual Summaries of Research in Science Education, and Dissertation Abstracts International. A total of 151 effect sizes were obtained from 33 studies representing 19,149 junior and senior high school students in the United States, Great Britain, and Israel. Study-weighted analysis yielded an overall mean effect size of 0.31 significantly favorable to the innovative curricula [t(25) = 2.183, p < 0.05] on all outcomes. Student performance in innovative curricula averaged in the 62nd percentile relative to the control norm. Tabulation of signed comparisons indicated that sixty-four out of eighty-one unweighted outcomes were favorable to the innovative curricula. Separate analyses for test content bias, methodological rigor, type of learning, and student characteristics showed no significant differences across these categories.     

Why do students drop out? Turning points and long-term experiences

Understanding the reasons that individuals drop out of high school is fundamental to improving intervention efforts to promote graduation. The authors present a mixed methods analysis of the reasons individuals drop out of high school before graduating. Using a survey methodology with young adults who left school before graduating (N?=?1,047, M age?=?21.5?years, SD?=?2.2 years, age range =18–25 years), the authors assessed ongoing life stressors, as well as the turning points individuals identified as the top reason for why they left school. Qualitative analysis provided seven categories of turning points: mobility, family, peers, school engagement and environment, health, crime, and multiple categories. More than half of respondents indicated that the reason they dropped out was related to school engagement and environment. Results showed differences across profiles of lived experiences, reported turning points, and sex.     

Women's work and academic culture: Adaptations and confrontations

This study presents a model of lifestyles based on the form of women's acculturation to academic life. The model rests on the assumptions of patterned behavior and values which can be termed women's culture and academic culture respectively. Since becoming academics requires women to mediate the boundary between behaviors expected of women and those expected by the overwhelmingly male academic profession, an acculturation rather than socialization model was employed.The in-depth study of the acculturative modes of professional behavior is both an exploratory and a qualitative effort to derive issues and categories from women's own perceptions. Forty-two women from diverse disciplines and institutions were interviewed. Interviewees were either advanced PhD candidates or had recently entered professional work.Three modal categories emerged from content analysis of intensive interviews. Reorientation reflected the effort of women to exemplify the norms of male academic culture. Reaffirmation required the command of both professional norms and traditional feminine roles and values. Reconstitution was an effort to reformulate professional participation into a lifestyle more compatible with women's cultural norms.     

FUNDAMENTALIST EDUCATION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A comparison is made of the contents and contributors to the British Journal of Religious Education (UK) and Religious Education (North America). A content analysis of each journal was conducted for a 10-year period between 1992–2002. A total of 20 volumes were analyzed, with attention given to types of research published, composition of review boards, authors' gender, affiliation, religious identity, position, geographic location, and number of contributions. The question of what each journal can learn from the other is addressed, and implications for the field are drawn.     

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF COMPLEXITY AND PROCESS IN MULTIPLE-CHOICE ITEMS1,2

In this study hierarchical syndrome analysis was used to investigate empirically the clustering of tests each of which consisted of items based upon the rationale of a particular category of the Bloom Taxonomy (i.e., an “application” test, an “analysis” test, etc.). Each test included items related to eight physical science principles. Thus an attempt was made to hold the content as constant as possible and systematically vary process in the formation of the tests. The data indicate possible ways of combining Taxonomy item types based on the psychological distance between the categories.     

Responding to the Message: providing a social context for children learning to write

Abstract In this classroom‐based research study, written expression was viewed as an interactive social process involving written communication between the teacher and the children. Children received increased opportunities to write on topics they chose themselves, and their teacher responded in writing to the content of their writing. The teacher did not provide corrective feedback for accuracy of spelling or grammar throughout the study. Written content feedback from the teacher was provided to each child according to an intra‐subject ABAB research design. Analysis of the teacher's written feedback identified her use of six specific categories of positive response to the themes, ideas and characters of each child's writing. Significant increases in both quantity and quality of writing occurred during the written content feedback phases. Spelling accuracy was maintained at a high level of accuracy throughout the study.     

Coping with guilt and shame: a narrative approach

Autobiographical narratives (N = 97) of guilt and shame experiences were analysed to determine how the nature of emotion and context relate to ways of coping in such situations. The coding categories were created by content analysis, and the connections between categories were analysed with optimal scaling and log‐linear analysis. Two theoretical perspectives were tested: the view that shame generally is a more maladaptive emotion than guilt, and the view that in situations where responsibility is ambiguous, both guilt and shame feelings are likely to be maladaptive. In line with the latter, chronic rumination was more likely to occur in situations where responsibility was ambiguous compared to situations where the respondent's responsibility was clear, regardless of emotion. In addition, reparative behaviour was less frequently reported in shame situations than in situations where the respondent felt guilty or both guilty and ashamed. The findings supported the view that the nature of emotional reaction and the nature of the situation both affect the ways of coping.     

Academics’ views on publishing refereed works: A content analysis

Survey research was carried out with academics (N=205), from a large regional Australian university, to explore their views about publishing or not publishing in refereed sources and their perceived worth of this activity. Several open-ended questions were included in the survey to elicit information about the factors that either encourage or discourage these academics from publishing. Additionally, questions were posed to allow the respondents to discuss ways that the University could further support them in their endeavour to produce at least some or more scholarly publications. The responses to these questions were content analysed to discover key categories and frequencies were calculated on the most salient categories. The results of this analysis are reported and comparisons are made on the responses of male and female academics. The implications of the results for higher educational practice are considered.     

Philosophy and the curriculum

This paper is reprinted from Israel Scheffler's Reason and Teaching (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973). It is the first of a number of classic paper which Science & Education will reprint in forthcoming volumes. These are being reprinted because their arguments still warrant attention and they are increasingly inaccessible to a good number of subscribers.     

Conceptions of Teaching Art Held by Secondary School Art Teachers

Research into teachers' conceptions of teaching can be justified in that deep seated beliefs impact upon the way teachers teach and influence the learning approaches of their students. This study examined conceptions of teaching art, through interviews with 18 secondary school art teachers in Hong Kong. The analysis resulted in a two‐level characterisation of conceptions under broad essentialist and contextualist orientations. There were four subordinate conception categories, namely moral development in art and aesthetic development in art under the essentialist orientation, and intellectual development through art, and expression and therapy through art as sub‐categories of the contextualist orientation. The categories were defined and delimited by six dimensions. The categories were seen as clearly distinguishable but related, though not hierarchically. There was no evidence of the category scheme being culturally specific, as the majority of the teachers held beliefs which were not consistent with the traditional manner of Chinese painting.     

Structured and unstructured homeschooling: a proposal for broadening the taxonomy

In recent decades, parental involvement in their children’s education has been steadily increasing. Perhaps the ultimate form of parental involvement is the phenomenon called elective home education – EHE (also known as homeschooling). It is customary to divide EHE into two categories according to the degree of structure: structured EHE and unstructured EHE (or unschooling). Advocates of structured learning study in the home framework according to a defined curriculum, whereas unstructured learning advocates study content determined in accordance with the child’s wishes, with no external dictates. This division relates to learning as one entity. This article proposes to distinguish between two dimensions of structure: content and process. In order to demonstrate this distinction, qualitative research was conducted in which 30 mothers who educate their children at home were interviewed and asked what they actually do within the framework of EHE. The research findings suggest that the two types of EHE are indeed different from one another with regard to the structure of the content of instruction and learning as well as the structure of the process. The article addresses the importance of broadening the traditional distinction (structured and unstructured EHE) to include content and process.     

Strengths and Weaknesses of Non-enhanced and Contrast-enhanced Cadaver Computed Tomography Scans in the Teaching of Gross Anatomy in an Integrated Curriculum

Cadaver-specific postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has become an integral part in anatomy teaching at several universities. Recently, the feasibility of contrast-enhanced (CE)-PMCT has been demonstrated. The purpose of this study was to identify particular strengths and weaknesses of both non-enhanced and contrast-enhanced PMCT compared to conventional cadaver dissection. First, the students’ perception of the learning effectiveness of the three different modalities have been assessed using a 34-item survey (five-point Likert scale) covering all anatomy course modules. Results were compared using the nonparametric Friedman Test. Second, the most frequent artifacts in cadaver CT scans, were systematically analyzed in 122 PMCT and 31 CE-PMCT data sets to quantify method-related limitations and characteristics. Perfusion quality was assessed in 57 vascular segments (38 arterial and 19 venous). The survey was answered by n = 257/320 (80.3%) students. Increased learning benefits of PMCT/ CE-PMCT compared to cadaver dissection were found in osteology (2/3 categories, P < 0.001), head and neck (2/5 categories, P < 0.01), and brain anatomy (3/3 categories, P < 0.01). Contrast-enhanced-PMCT was perceived particularly useful in learning vascular anatomy (10/10 categories, P < 0.01). Cadaver dissection received significantly higher scores compared to PMCT and CE-PMCT in all categories of the abdomen and thorax (7/7 categories, P < 0.001), as well as the majority of muscular anatomy (5/6 categories, P < 0.001). Frequent postmortem artifacts (total n = 28, native-phase n = 21, contrast injection-related n = 7) were identified and assessed. The results of this work contribute to the understanding of the value of integrating cadaver-specific PMCT in anatomy teaching.     

Classroom behaviour and academic achievement: how classroom behaviour categories relate to gender and academic performance

Latent profile analysis was used to identify different categories of students having different ‘profiles’ using self-reported classroom behaviour. Four categories of students with unique classroom behaviour profiles were identified among secondary school students in Oslo, Norway (n = 1570). Analyses examined how classroom behaviour categories are related to gender and school performance and whether a dual understanding of gender in school is helpful when trying to explain achievement differences as supposed to classroom behaviour categories. Analyses showed that gender was a better predictor of school achievement than classroom behaviour categories, even though the behaviour categories did contribute to the explanation of variance in students’ academic marks above and beyond gender.     

Identifying key issues for university practitioners of garden-based learning in Spain

ABSTRACT

The presence of learning gardens in Spain is growing, and the current scenario is highly diverse in relation to issues such as participatory models or purposes, among others. In the context of the 1^st National Meeting on organic learning gardens, we convened eight expert practitioners in a focus group. Their discourse was analyzed through content analysis, after which four categories were selected for co-occurrence analyses. The most important questions for university garden-based practitioners in the country are presented, related to actors involved, functions that gardens fulfill, strengths of these educational resources, and requirements for their consolidation.     

Influencing Greek pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs and self-confidence to implement the new ‘Studies for the Environment’ curricula

This study explores the effect of an innovative course examining Greek elementary student teachers’ (STs’) efficacy beliefs and self-confidence for curriculum-based teaching on ‘Studies for the Environment’ topics. These two variables are influencing teachers’ ability to teach environmental issues for young children. Five new factors were also examined for their influence on STs’ self-efficacy and self-confidence: the role of workshops and simulations, teacher–student interchange role, teaching observation, analysis of other teachings and student-assessed teaching. The study provides useful guidelines for teacher preparation programmes towards the implementation of textbook-free and curriculum-based teaching that maximise students’ learning. A pre/post/6 month-delay-post research design using both quantitative (STEBI and factors’ ranking) and qualitative (interviews) research tools were implemented in two cohorts of pre-service teachers (N₁ = 25, N₂ = 16). Quantitative data were subjected to significance testing and effect sizes analysis, and triangulated with bottom-up categories developed from interviews. Results indicate a considerable and durable increase in STs’ personal and outcome expectancy self-efficacy beliefs scores. In respect of the STs’ self-confidence, pedagogical content knowledge and especially its sub-factors of Studies for the Environment Pedagogy, reflection, and teaching experience were the most influential factors, while some inertia in the increase of self-confidence was also observed.     

Becoming a mature student: How adult appplicants weigh the advantages and disadvantages of higher education

The data presented in this paper is taken fromthe results of two much larger studies ofmature student decision-making and HigherEducation (HE), which considerprocesses of agency from initial considerationof the possibility of becoming a studentto eventually becoming one. In thispaper, six categories of applicant to HE arediscussed: `Delayed traditional students', `Late starters' who have undergone alife-transforming event e.g. redundancy ordivorce and require `a new start'. `Single parents' `Careerists', who are currently in employment who seek a qualification to make progress in their existing careers, `Escapees' who are currently in employment who want a qualification as a way out of `dead-end' jobs, Finally, the `personal growers', a small number pursuing education for its own sake.These categories of applicants are discussed inlight of the factors that both catalyse andinhibit individuals' decision-making duringapplication to HE.     

SCIENCE TEACHERS’ VOICE ON HOMEWORK: BELIEFS,ATTITUDES, AND BEHAVIORS

Homework (HW) is an integral part of the learning process. Currently, there is renewed interest and controversy about its effectiveness. The present study explores the voices of the science teachers on this matter. Adopting the view that reporting both teachers’ views and actual classroom practices is necessary for obtaining a more complete view of the phenomena, the present study addressed teachers’ views relating to the cognitive, affective, and pedagogical aspects of HW, their in-class practices and behaviors related to HW, and if the views and practices differ. The research was conducted in 3 stages: (a) teachers’ (n = 25) behaviors were examined based on classroom observations of 3 – 5 consecutive lessons, (b) these teachers were interviewed about their beliefs about and attitudes toward HW, and (c) the data from both the observations and interviews were processed into categories and subcategories. The findings revealed a wide range of teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors and that teachers hold both positive and negative views simultaneously. In addition, the views for some categories expressed in the interviews concurred with the teacher’s actual classroom behavior; for other categories, disagreements were identified. This research broadens the contemporary horizons regarding HW and may contribute to those who wish to work with teachers making HW more effective.