Some aspects of the problems of teaching about energy in school biology

Consideration is given to the problems of teaching energy in relation to cell biology and ecological energetics in schools. Aspects of the understanding of the nature of energy shown by a sample of 17‐18‐year old pupils studying biology in a number of English schools were investigated. Simple written questions and subsequent oral discussion were used and it was found that there were important inconsistencies between the ideas concerning energy that are being put forward by biology teachers and physical science teachers in schools. It is therefore urged that efforts should be made to overcome this problem in the teaching of school biology, so that what is taught in biology is consistent with current thinking about the teaching of energy in physical science. Some principles are suggested for achieving this aim.     

Erroneous ideas about respiration: The teacher factor

Recent research suggests that many South African pupils in their final year of schooling have erroneous ideas about various aspects of respiration (Sanders and Cramer, 1992). This study investigates teachers as a possible source of pupils' errors. The views of 136 biology teachers about respiration and related concepts were elicited by means of an analysis of how teachers marked an essay containing errors commonly found among year-12 pupils. The teachers' responses suggest that many of them might well have erroneous ideas. These are reviewed in terms of four conceptual areas related to respiration. Finally the implications for teachers are discussed, and suggestions are made about possible ways to address the problem of erroneous ideas among teachers and pupils.     

Tough acts to follow: the challenges to science teachers presented by biotechnological progress

The public controversies associated with biotechnological progress (genetic modification, cloning, and so forth) increasingly impact upon biology teaching in school; teachers find themselves engaged in discussions with pupils on value‐laden issues deriving from the social and ethical implications of the ‘new science’. The research described in this paper focused upon the thinking of a sample of 41 biology teachers as they endeavoured to implement the first year of the new Scottish Advanced Higher Biology course and to face the challenges associated with these controversies. Following questionnaire returns, the investigation employed semistructured, in‐depth interviews with 10 teachers and, separately, with their 61 pupils (17–18 years of age) and was part of a medium‐term to long‐term evaluation of a university summer school that had endeavoured to update these teachers on recent biotechnological advances. While teachers were found to be fairly positively disposed to handling discussion of such contentious matters, they were none‐too‐clear as to its precise merits and functions; many lack confidence in handling discussion. The research indicates that much needs to be tackled by way of professional development for science teachers now engaged in dimensions new to science teaching.     

Textual Cohesion and Effective Reading: A teaching strategy

The unfamiliarity of the language of books sometimes contributes to the limited effectiveness with which pupils read. An action research project was carried out with a group of primary school teachers and their pupils, who belong to minority ethnic groups, in order to develop a teaching strategy to help these pupils to attend to the cohesive elements of texts, alongside the conceptual content. The teachers selected texts for reading and discussion with their pupils and they included in the discussion some prepared questions aimed at recovering the meaning of cohesive devices in the texts. The teachers found that they developed their own awareness of the linguistic demands on pupils of the texts which they selected, and the responses of the pupils demonstrated the contribution of the cohesive elements of the texts to the interplay of the factors, linguistic and conceptual, which influence pupils' effective reading.     

小学教师教学态度与学生思维类型的形成与发展

小学生思维发展中所形成的思维类型和特征,与学校教学中教师的教学态度是有密切关系的。教师的教学态度的类型和适宜性会直接影响学生的思维类型和特征的形成与发展。     

浅析小学语文教学中的问题意识

针对目前小学语文教学中,长期存在的不重视培养学生问题意识的现状进行分析,在此基础上,指出培养小学生问题意识的重要性。文章着重提出了可供具体操作的教学策略：融洽师生关系,使学生敢问;改变教学思想和教学策略,让学生想问;指导质疑方法,使学生会问。探究在教学的过程中,使学生发现有价值、有意义的问题,然后进行积极的思维,通过实践、努力,最终解决问题,从而激发学生的潜能,提高小学语文教学效率。     

创造性课堂教学

创造性教学就是把创造性教学思想与教学方式相结合，使充满科学性、艺术性的创造性教学代替传统的教学方式，把传授知识与发展学生的各种心理能力结合起来，通过教学内容的重新组织，采用开放的教学形式，在课堂中增强师生交往，激发、引导学生讨论，大胆思考，培养学生批判性、发散性的思维能力。     

语文教学如何培养学生的创新思维能力

语文教育要体现素质教育理念,必须培养学生的创新思维能力.语文教师在日常教学中要全面发展学生的求同思维、求异思维、形象思维和逻辑思维能力,从而达到培养学生的创新思维能力的目的.     

The pupil as philosopher

Discussion of the need for an understanding of the philosophy of science to inform classroom practice is mostly directed at clarifying the nature of science, the history of science, the nature of scientific evidence, and the nature of scientific method for curriculum developers and teachers. The discussion assumes no input from pupils. The constructivist perspective, however, assumes that pupils do not come to lessons with blank minds. What insights and questions do students bring to lessons about issues relevant to the philosophy and history of science? Can these be used to develop understanding? Classroom discussions about the energy concept imply that students have valuable ideas and questions related to the exploration of philosophical issues. Rather than developing curricula to tell students about the philosophy and history of science, this paper argues for exploration of student’s ideas and questions when abstract concepts are being discussed in the classroom.     

Prompting teachers’ constructive reflection: pupils’ questions as critical incidents

Constructive reflection is seen as an important ingredient in the professional development of teachers, in order to stimulate significant change in approaches to classroom practice and the general provision of science education in schools. This paper explores the use of pupils’ questions in provoking ‘critical incidents’ in the professional lives of teachers. It is suggested that pupils’ questions can be both indicative of their own conceptual change as well as being sophisticated prompts for teachers to examine their own thinking. Case studies of two teachers ‐‐ one primary and one secondary ‐‐ are used to illuminate how such critical incidents can lead to changes in teacher thinking, resulting then in changes in classroom practice in science. Suggestions are made for the use of pupils’ questions as critical incidents in the professional development of teachers.     

Being constructive: An alternative approach to the teaching of introductory ideas in electricity

This paper reports on the development and implementation of an introductory course on electric circuits based on a constructivist model of curriculum development and teaching. Pupil interviews before instruction explored and clarified the range of children's existing ideas and conceptions. A teaching sequence was designed to elicit pupils’ ideas, to challenge these experimentally where they differed from accepted scientific ideas and to encourage discussion and reformulation of ideas. Post‐instruction interviews showed improved pupil understanding of several important basic concepts. The constructivist approach appeared to provide a viable and satisfactory basis for teachers’ classroom decision‐making and for the structuring and sequencing of activities as the course progressed.     

Pre-service Physics Teachers and Conceptual Difficulties on Temperature and Heat

In this article the ‘lesson preparation method’ was used to investigate pre-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, in particular their knowledge of pupils’ conceptual difficulties on temperature and heat. A relation is found between the conceptual difficulties pre-service teachers expect their pupils to have and the conceptual difficulties they themselves have or have had. The discussion considers what pedagogical content knowledge teacher educators should include in the initial or inservice teacher education curriculum.     

谈如何在小学数学教学中培养学生独立思考的习惯

在当今多元化教育模式下,教师侧重于培养小学生自我探索、独立思考的能力,格外重视小学生逻辑思维能力的培养,让学生在潜移默化中形成独立思考的习惯。小学阶段的数学教育教学对学生来说非常重要,教师要让学生养成独立思考的习惯,提高独立思考的能力,要学会活学活用知识,避免死板地吸收数学内容。     

Schools as dangerous places

When students set off for school each day how many of them or their caregivers consider for a moment that they will spend the day at a potentially dangerous place? On the contrary, students and caregivers probably view schools as safe havens, and official research suggests that this is the case for the majority of teachers and pupils. However, underlying this official view, schools are more and more seen as much less benign and safe. The popular press, for one thing, is certainly keen to report instances of schools as dangerous places. This article examines schools as dangerous places because of dangers from pupils to pupils, teachers to pupils, teachers to teachers, pupils to teachers and dangers from the physical and natural environment. The discussion is framed in terms of the culture of the school and the increasingly legal nature of the schooling and educational environment.     

Building on student mathematical thinking in whole-class discourse: exploring teachers’ in-the-moment decision-making,interpretation, and underlying conceptions

Often, mathematics teachers do not incorporate whole-class discourse of students’ various ideas and solution methods into their teaching practice. Particularly complex is the in-the-moment decision-making that is necessary to build on students’ thinking and develop their collective construction of mathematics. This study explores the decision-making patterns of five experienced Dutch mathematics teachers during their novice attempts at orchestrating whole-class discourse concerning students’ various solution methods. Our goal has been to unpack the complexity of their in-the-moment decision-making during whole-class discourse through lesson observations and stimulated recall interviews. We investigated teacher decision-making adopting a model that combines two perspectives, namely (1) we explored student-teacher interaction with regard to building on student thinking and (2) we explored how the teachers based decisions during such interaction upon their own personal conceptions and interpretation of student thinking. During these novice attempts at orchestrating whole-class discourse, the teachers created many situations for students to articulate their thinking. We found that at certain instances, teachers’ in-the-moment decision-making resulted in opportunities to build on student thinking that were not completely seized. During such instances, the teachers’ decision-making was shaped by the teachers’ own conceptions of the relevant mathematics and by teacher conceptions that centered around student understanding and mathematical goals. Our findings suggest that teachers might be supported in their novice attempts at whole-class discourse by explicit discussion of the mathematics and of their conceptions with regard to student understanding and mathematical goals.

     

The development of intrapersonal intelligence in pupils experiencing social,emotional and behavioural difficulties

This article draws from an evaluative case study of a group work approach – Support Groups – designed by the author to support pupils perceived as having Social and Emotional Behavioural Difficulties within a Secondary school situated in an area of multiple deprivation in Scotland. The study, which is principally qualitative, draws from the accounts of 69 pupils who participated within the intervention during its first four years of inception and from a range of stakeholder accounts – parents, Support Group Leaders, class teachers and senior managers. The intervention focused upon collaborative, discussion-based activities designed to foster reflection, understanding and thinking skills. The study utilises data drawn from attendance, attainment and discipline statistics, comparing the Support Group population to wider comparator groups, in addition to questionnaires (open and closed), scheduled interviews and focus group discussion. This article focuses specifically upon the extent to which pupils developed intrapersonal intelligence. The findings indicate that the majority of pupils had, to at least an extent, developed greater understanding of their behaviour and that these outcomes were still in evidence up to two years after intervention.     

让学生在绿色评价中快乐成长 --小学音乐教学实施发展性评价策略研究

为了建立促使学生全面发展的音乐学习评价体系,教师必须转变教育观念,树立以人为本、以学生发展为核心、评价与教学过程并行、面向多元的评价理念,采用多种策略实施促进学生全面发展的绿色评价.     

Anton Ehrenzweig,the Artist Teacher and a Psychoanalytic Approach to School Art Education

In the 1960s Anton Ehrenzweig devised an experimental course for school art teachers based on his deep knowledge of British psychoanalytic theory, especially Melanie Klein’s ideas of projection and introjection. Ehrenzweig’s early advocacy for the idea of an artist teacher, which formed a key element of his Art Teachers Certificate course at Goldsmiths, could be seen as ahead of its time, anticipating some of the ideas and practices of the past couple of decades. However, his claim that good teachers use their pupils as a medium for the teacher’s own creativity raises ethical questions that still resonate today. In this article, I will draw out some comparisons between Ehrenzweig’s theories of creativity and art education, and recent writing on the artist teacher. I will consider ways in which Ehrenzweig’s development of Kleinian psychoanalytic theory can both complement and challenge current thinking about the merging and differentiation of artist, teacher and student identities.     

Making sense of teaching through metaphors: a review across three studies

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from three studies that have addressed the conceptualization and application of the metaphor construct to the study of teachers and teaching. With respect to the perspectives of elementary and secondary preservice teachers, we specifically examined how the particular metaphors they used indicated conceptualizations of and orientations to classroom life, and how these metaphors influenced teachers' approaches to teaching, curriculum, and their work with pupils. We frame the discussion in light of the larger literature on the relationship of teachers' beliefs and practices as it relates to learning to teach and teacher education. The paper provides implications for linking the research reported with contemporary ideas for teaching and teacher preparation.