Scientists at play in a field of the Lord

The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum opened in May of 2007. During the opening day, a loosely affiliated group of scientists joined in a Rally for Reason as they termed it to protest the museum’s potential effect on science in the United States. This paper discusses ethnographic data collected before and during the rally. Scientist narratives disclose the rationale for their participation at the rally, unpacking their hopes, fears and social ideals vis-à-vis their perception of the Museum’s impact. With these ideals, I discuss the lacking discourse between the values of ideal of science literacy, the contested authority of museums and their publics, and a lacking conception of how a valuerationality aligned towards the Museum’s message continues to be culturally produced.     

Teaching bodies at work

This qualitative, multiple case study draws into question claims that teacher involvement in large‐scale assessment is professionally debilitating. Four teacher‐scorers of reading in the 1998 Council of Ministers of Education, Canada's School Achievement Indicators Programme national literacy assessment were interviewed pre‐, during, and post‐marking in terms of their personal and professional motivations for participation, their perception of the role of such evaluations in classroom practice, their self‐concept as autonomous professionals, and the impact of such evaluations on their relationships with colleagues, students, and administrators. Teachers reported that active participation in marking served to clarify rather than corrode their pedagogical values, affirmed or improved their classroom assessment and instructional practices, validated their self‐perceptions as professionals, and had a neutral or negligible impact on school relationships. It is concluded that involvement in low‐stakes, large‐scale assessments is not inconsistent with notions of professionalism.     

Drawing Scientists

Research has indicated that pupils view scientists predominantly as white, male and dressed in laboratory coats. To investigate this belief, pupils in schools, and some postgraduate certificate in education students, were asked to draw a picture of two scientists. This is a procedure that gives more information about pupils' perceptions than the usual request for pupils to draw one. The results of this study, this paper argues, indicate that the image that pupils have of scientists is changing to show less gender bias, and to be more realistic.     

Counseling persons injured at work

Support and treatment programs for persons injured at work have expanded considerably since their early beginnings in Germany in 1884. Industrially injured workers must deal with problems in at least four major areas: 1) medical restoration, 2) temporary economic maintenance, 3) psychosocial adjustment to disability, and 4) vocational restoration. The counselor's role in assisting such persons is a significant one. In fact, it could be argued that the counselor is the only professional who has been specifically trained to assist persons who must confront the psychosocial and vocational restoration problems commonly associated with work-related injury. Both individual and group counseling methods can be used to facilitate positive psychosocial adjustment. Essential elements of the vocational restoration process include vocational assessment, job analysis, treatment (including career counseling and possibly physical restoration and/or job training), job placement, and follow-up. Specific counselor interventions in all areas should be guided by both theoretical and practical considerations, and family members and employers should be involved in programming whenever feasible or appropriate. Employee assistance programs and proprietary rehabilitation companies are discussed as relatively recent developments in the United States which offer potential to reduce and/or treat work-related injury and disability.This article is based on a paper of the same title presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counseling Consultation on Counseling Disabled People and Their Families, Vienna, July 1987.     

Working Alongside Scientists

Current curriculum demands require primary teachers to teach about the Nature of Science; yet, few primary teachers have had opportunity to learn about science as a discipline. Prior schooling and vicarious experiences of science may shape their beliefs about science and, as a result, their science teaching. This qualitative study describes the impact on teacher beliefs about science and science education of a programme where 26 New Zealand primary (elementary) teachers worked fulltime for 6 months alongside scientists, experiencing the nature of work in scientific research institutes. During the 6 months, teachers were supported, through a series of targeted professional development days, to make connections between their experiences working with scientists, the curriculum and the classroom. Data for the study consisted of mid- and end-of-programme written teacher reports and open-ended questionnaires collected at three points, prior to and following 6 months with the science host and after 6 to 12 months back in school. A shift in many teachers’ beliefs was observed after the 6 months of working with scientists in combination with curriculum development days; for many, these changes were sustained 6 to 12 months after returning to school. Beliefs about the aims of science education became more closely aligned with the New Zealand curriculum and its goal of developing science for citizenship. Responses show greater appreciation of the value of scientific ways of thinking, deeper understanding about the nature of scientists’ work and the ways in which science and society influence each other.     

Stories About Scientists

正A One morning Newton got up very early and started to work on a difficult problem.Then he felt hungry.His servant wanted to boil an egg for him,but he wanted to do it himself and said,"You can leave the egg with me and I will boil it.It is very easy."The servant said,"You must boil the egg for ten minutes and then it will be ready."Then she left the room.     

充分利用工作中的空闲时间

不论你是从事何种工作的，都会有一些无事可做的空闲时期。本期工作职场，我们为您提供一些建议，以充分利用工作中的这段空暇。     

Experimental work at Hellerup Seminarium,Denmark

Sloth, O. “Experimental work at Hellerup Seminarium, Denmark,” Revue ATEE Journal 3 (1980) 37‐42.

The author describes the approach of one Danish College of Education to a problem which is by now internationally known: in this age of integration into the normal class of all but the demonstrably and severely educationally subnormal or handicapped, how can we equip student teachers, during their initial training, to cope with these problems of Special Education. He outlines the attempt at Hellerup Seminarium, Copenhagen, to solve the problem by integrating and restructuring the compulsory pedagogic subjects and educational specialisms and so build up within the legal framework what he calls a Special Education Teacher Education (SPECTE).     

Faculty at work: Focus on teaching

Within the framework of cognitive motivation theory, selected personal and environmental motivational variables for faculty in English, chemistry, and psychology from community colleges, comprehensive colleges and universities, and research universities were regressed against faculty allocation of work effort given to teaching. The data came from a 1988 national survey. Gender (sociodemographic); quality of graduate school attended, career age, and rank (career); self-competence, self-efficacy, institutional commitment, personal interest in teaching, and percent time preferred to give to teaching (self-valuations); and institutional preference, consensus and support, and colleague commitment to teaching (perception of the environment) were entered into regressions.R ² were generally strong (.86 for community college chemists) and significant. For all institutional types, self-valuation and perception of the environment motivators significantly accounted for the explained variance whereas sociodemographic and career variables did not.