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.     

Accuracy of scale conceptions in science: Mental maneuverings across many orders of spatial magnitude

The use of unifying themes that span the various branches of science is recommended to enhance curricular coherence in science instruction. Conceptions of spatial scale are one such unifying theme. This research explored the accuracy of spatial scale conceptions of science phenomena across a spectrum of 215 participants: fifth grade, seventh grade, ninth grade, twelfth grade, and doctoral students in science. Conceptions spanning sizes from one nanometer to one billion meters were investigated through use of written assessments and individual interviews. Results showed that accuracy of conceptions at small scale were not symmetrical with respect to conceptions at large scale. Large scale accuracy tended to decline in a smooth, uniform fashion as the scale increased, whereas small scale accuracy displayed a discontinuity at the microscopic level. To conceptually interact with scales far removed from human scale, experts used strategies of mentally jumping to a new scale‐world. Experts tended not to transition smoothly between the differently scaled worlds but rather to make a discontinuous leap, maintaining abstract linkages between the worlds via mathematics. Implications of these findings for curriculum development and classroom instruction are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 1061–1085, 2006     

Rater Agreement in Test‐to‐Curriculum Alignment Reviews

During the development of large‐scale curricular achievement tests, recruited panels of independent subject‐matter experts use systematic judgmental methods—often collectively labeled “alignment” methods—to rate the correspondence between a given test's items and the objective statements in a particular curricular standards document. High disagreement among the expert panelists may indicate problems with training, feedback, or other steps of the alignment procedure. Existing procedural recommendations for alignment reviews have been derived largely from single‐panel research studies; support for their use during operational large‐scale test development may be limited. Synthesizing data from more than 1,000 alignment reviews of state achievement tests, this study identifies features of test–standards alignment review procedures that impact agreement about test item content. The researchers then use their meta‐regression results to propose some practical suggestions for alignment review implementation.     

The concept of the absent curriculum: the case of the Muslim contribution and the English National Curriculum for history

This paper introduces the concept of the absent curriculum on the premise that the study of curriculum has been prone to privileging curricular presence to the exclusion of curricular absence. In order to address this imbalance and to articulate a theory of absence in the curriculum, the paper applies ideas derived from the philosophy of critical realism—‘absence’ and ‘totality’—to curriculum theory to conceive of the absent curriculum. The paper outlines three components of the absent curriculum: the null curriculum at the level of national curricular policy, the unselected curriculum at the level of school curricular planning and the unenacted curriculum at the classroom level of teacher delivery. This conceptual framework is illustrated by a case example of how the absence of the history of Muslim contribution from the teaching of the National Curriculum for history in four English schools formed an absent curriculum which prompted some of the research sample of 295 British Muslim boys to disengage from their learning of history. The paper concludes that the absent curriculum is a hidden curriculum that suggests to groups whose histories are missing from the national curricula that they are relatively insignificant citizens in the community of the nation.     

Notes on contributors

Social cohesion in school is reflected in social discrimination processes and the complementary social roles of teachers, pupils, other staff and pupils' relatives. School social cohesion varies in level from high, characterised by prosocial interactions, to low, characterised by antisocial or violent interactions. Antisocial behaviour is usually embedded in specific interaction patterns between different social actors and is based on specific motives or stereotypes that elicit or justify this behaviour. Comprehensive study of these patterns is enabled by information and communication technology (ICT). The aim of this study is to use ICT to investigate social interaction patterns between personal and school characteristics of secondary school teachers and their curricular and disciplinary characteristics and experience of violence, including the motives they perceive when they are the victim, perpetrator or witness of six types of violence, differentiated according to the complementary roles of pupils, other teachers, other school staff and pupils' relatives. Three questionnaires were developed and used in a nationwide Internet‐based survey in Dutch secondary schools. This school safety monitor was completed in 2006 by 5148 teachers, 80,770 pupils, 1749 educational support staff and 629 school managers. Data were checked for reliability, scale homogeneity and representativeness. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the social interaction patterns in teachers' data. The results reveal violence‐specific social behaviour and social‐mirroring processes between teachers and pupils in particular. Furthermore, teachers who are younger, female or working in low‐attainment educational settings apply more curricular differentiation and collaborate more with pupils on disciplinary matters than their respective counterparts. Teachers who work in low‐attainment schools, who work in cities, who are homosexual/lesbian or who do not feel most at home in The Netherlands experience more violent behaviour as a victim or witness than their respective counterparts. In particular, teachers attribute the following motives to violence: physical appearance, behaviour, level of school achievement, a handicap, being religious, gender, sexual preference and ways of dealing with non‐conforming behaviour or punishments. Compared to teachers, pupils gave a broad array of motives for every type of violence. The conclusion is that Internet‐based data‐collection procedures provide a more comprehensive and systematic picture of social discrimination and violence motive patterns in schools than has hitherto been customary.     

Extra-Curricular Activity and the Transition from Higher Education to Work: A Survey of Graduates in the United Kingdom

This paper focuses on the effects of extra‐curricular activity on graduates' transition from higher education to the labour market. The study is based on a survey of 119 graduates conducted in 2004 in the UK. The data gathered cover a large range of social and leisure activities that the graduates carried on while students at their universities. Several aspects of their transitional process from student to worker are also covered. Data were analysed by means of linear and logistic regression models. Results show that extra‐curricular activity has a significant influence on the transition process. First, extra‐curricular experience gives access to better occupational status but lengthens the period of unemployment preceding the first job. Second, as compared with the most frequently observed extra‐curricular behaviour, two profiles could be distinguished: the one better performing than average, and the other worse performing. Results suggest extra‐curricular strategies to better enable graduates' effective transition to work.     

Effectiveness of a cognitive strategy intervention in improving arithmetic computation based on the PASS theory

The purpose of this study was to determine if an instruction designed to facilitate planning, given by teachers to their class as a group, would have differential effects depending on the specific Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive (PASS) cognitive characteristics of each child. A cognitive strategy instruction that encouraged planning was provided to the group of 19 students with learning disabilities and mild mental impairments. All students completed math worksheets during 7 baseline and 14 intervention sessions. During the intervention phase, students engaged in self-reflection and verbalization of strategies about how the arithmetic computation worksheets should be completed. The sample was sorted into one experimental and four contrast groups after the experiment was completed. There were four groups with a cognitive weakness in each PASS scale from the Cognitive Assessment System and one group with no cognitive weakness. The results showed that children with a cognitive weakness in Planning improved considerably (large effect size of 1.4), in contrast to those with a cognitive weakness in Attention (small effect size of 0.3), Simultaneous weakness (a slight deterioration and effect size of -0.2), Successive weakness (medium effect size of 0.4), and no cognitive weakness (small effect size of .2). These data showed that children with a Planning weakness benefitted from the instruction designed to help them be more plaful. Those children who received the planning-based instruction who were not low inplanning did not show the same level of improvement.     

A utility model for teaching load decisions in academic departments

The authors model the class size and teaching load decisions of academic departments in terms of a departmental utility function. Utility is postulated to be asymmetric around class size and teaching load norms, and variables for curricular structure, disciplinary domain, and institutional type are taken into account. Maximization of the utility function produces decision rules for the number of sections to be offered for each course, and hence the faculty's overall teaching load. A nonlinear estimator is developed for the decision rules' parameters and applied to data from four liberal arts colleges and two research universities. Results are consistent with theories about faculty discretionary time and with expectations about the effects of curricular structure on class size. The paper concludes with a discussion about the effects of enrollment uncertainty on faculty load decisions.     

金融业全面开放后我国商业银行的效率研究——基于Malmquist指数的实证分析

运用DEA模型的Malmquist指数,对金融业全面开放以来(2006—2010年)中国16家商业银行的全要素生产率进行了测度。结果显示:金融业全面开放以来,我国商业银行的全要素生产率出现先下降后上升的趋势,而宏观经济环境和政府经济政策的变化是其波动的主要原因;2006—2010年16家商业银行的平均全要素生产率都提高了,但国有商业银行的平均全要素生产率增长速度要低于其他商业银行,其技术效率的下降是主要原因。     

Observations and ratings of preschool children's social behavior: Issues of representativeness and validity

Data were gathered from videotaped recordings of two preschool children engaged in unstructured free play over 12 days each. Observers coded behavior from the videotapes and completed a behavior rating scale for each child after every two observation sessions. Teachers also completed two behavior rating scales per child. Results indicated that at least three 30‐min observation sessions were required to reliably represent a child's overall behavior. Moderate correlations were obtained when observations were compared with teachers' and observers' own ratings, indicating the behavior rating scale did an adequate job of reflecting actual observed behavior. The implications of these results for researchers and practitioners are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 13–26, 2005.     

Language Patterns of Pre-School Children

The relationship between performance on concept attainment tasks and information processing tasks and performance on selected curricular achievement tests was examined through factor analytic procedures. Results indicated that information processing of exemplar information and concept attainment of exemplar information are highly related to curricular factors. Other specific information processing factors, namely science and spelling, were only moderately related to curricular achievement. From these relationships, it seems likely that there is a high relationship between exemplar information processing and concept attainment of exemplar information with curricular factors generally and that more liberal generalizations of research results from tightly controlled experimental settings to conventional learning situations seem justified.     

Cultural ideology matters in early childhood curriculum innovations: a comparative case study of Chinese kindergartens between Hong Kong and Shenzhen

This study forms part of a wider comparative research project investigating the mechanisms and outcomes of school-based curriculum (SBC) development in kindergartens between the two neighbouring cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, under the umbrella of ‘one country, two systems’. This comparison will help to clarify how sociocultural contexts may affect early childhood curriculum (ECC) innovations by comparing the kindergartens of socialist and capitalist China. Data are presented from qualitative case studies of four kindergartens—two in each city—corresponding to the three levels of curriculum analysis and comparison: intended curriculum, implemented curriculum and curriculum ideology. Comparative analyses revealed that the SBCs of the four cases were different but all tended to balance and integrate diverse approaches in terms of curricular and pedagogical practices. The commonalities of SBCs in Hong Kong and Shenzhen kindergartens were due to shared cultural values, propelled by both ‘modernization’ and Chinese traditions, while the unique characteristics of SBC practices in each society were shaped by different social contexts. The educational philosophy of progressivism has greatly influenced ECC innovations in the Chinese kindergartens to varying degrees and in different ways. Implications of this comparative study are also presented for future research and practice.     

School support groups,other school factors,and the safety of sexual minority adolescents

Sexual minority adolescents—those self‐identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) or with same‐sex desires or sexual experiences—report higher rates of victimization and suicidality than their heterosexual peers, yet little empirical research has examined school factors associated with these risks. This study used data from the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2000), matched with school‐level data from state records and school principals, to compare the safety of 202 sexual minority adolescents in 52 schools with and without support groups for LGB students, to investigate the relationship between perceived staff support and safety, and to explore other school factors associated with victimization and suicidality among these youth. As hypothesized, sexual minority adolescents in schools with LGB support groups reported lower rates of victimization and suicide attempts than those in other schools. Victimization and perceived staff support predicted suicidality. Several additional school factors were associated with the safety of sexual minority students. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 573–589, 2006.     

Written versus oral administration of a social-emotional self-report test for children: Does method of execution make a difference?

This study examined administration method (standard written administration vs. oral administration by an examiner) as a variable in influencing children's self-report test scores. Subjects included 139 students in grades 3–6, randomly assigned to one or the other administration condition. Subjects completed the Internalizing Disorders Evaluation Scale for Children (IDESC) according to the assigned administration method. Internal consistency estimates of each group were essentially similar. Mean IDESC scores of the two groups did not differ significantly from either a statistical or practical standpoint, based on t-test and effect size calculations. Results suggest that method of administration did not affect test performance. Implications for child assessment and future research are discussed.     

Curricular Differences and Unidimensionality of Achievement Test Data: An Exploratory Analysis

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a linear factor analytic method commonly used to investigate violation of the item response theory (IRT) unidimensionality assumption is sensitive to measurable curricular differences within a school district and to examine the possibility of differential item performance for groups of students receiving different instruction. For grades 3 and 6 in reading and mathematics, personnel from two midwestern school systems that regularly administer standardized achievement tests identified the formal textbook series used and provided ratings of test-instructional match for each school building (classroom). For both districts, the factor analysis results suggested no differences in percentages of variance for large first factors and relatively small second factors across ratings or series groups. The IRT analyses indicated little, if any, differential item performance for curricular subgroups. Thus, the impact of factors that might be related to curricular differences was judged to be minor.     

Norwegian Religious Education Workbooks after World War II: Exploring Teachers’ Workbook Constructions by Interpreting Traces of Textbooks and National Curricula

Twenty religious education (RE) workbooks covering half a century were examined in a search for RE teachers’ typical patterns of workbook construction. Three chronological main types were distinguished: “the biblical workbook,” “the workbook of Christian cultural nurture,” and “the RE workbook of diversity.” Of greater interest, however, were the particularities found in a few workbooks produced in the two interims between the chronological types. This article discusses—in the light of collective memory theory, social semiotics, and Norwegian RE history—the meaning of the teachers’ implicit contributions to the typical as well as the untypical workbook constructions. The concept of an “irreducible tension” between active agents and mediating means is found analytically fruitful. Religious education teachers are seen as cultural reproducers, interplaying with the central contextual curricular factors. In times of interlude and change, teachers have had other sets of contextual conditions and contingencies than in times of stability. The relatively quick implementation of a non‐confessional RE after the 1997 school reform is interpreted in line with economic priorities and with a curricular adjustment to the changed “spirit of the times.”     

Curriculum integration = course disintegration: What does this mean for anatomy?

Many basic scientists including anatomists are currently involved in decisions related to revisions of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Integration is a common theme in many of these decisions. As described by Harden, integration can occur along a multistep continuum from independent, discipline‐based courses to a completely interdisciplinary curriculum. For anatomy, each derivative of curricular integration can be shown to involve progressive disruptions of the temporal and topographical relationship between organ systems in a body region, of the temporal relationship with other courses in a harmonized curriculum, and of the relationships between components of organ systems when integration is implemented in thematic curricula. Drawing from our experience teaching in various types of integrated medical curricula, we encourage readers to proceed cautiously with their curricular decisions because each one can have gains and losses that may impact learning in the new format. Anat Sci Educ. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

The inspirited nature of mindful curricular enactment’s community (re)making

Intertwining case study with practitioner inquiry, a research team seeks language for the conduct of mindful curricular enactment in an alternative public middle school. The school is committed to valuing students’ narratives of experience, the resources all bring to the school, and the given particularities of contexts, subject matter, and situations, as the makings comprising learning within and through community. A collaborative approach to inquiry that involves all team partners in the research process and engages the unique strengths that each brings focuses on how this alternative school provides a case for accessing how and why mindful curricular enactment orients accordingly. It is the makings forming this curricular movement, and the room found within these makings to reorganize and reconstruct thinking, that primary attention is oriented towards. Deweyan ‘roominess’ negotiated through such curricular enactment is documented as mindful attention to curriculum-making that fosters the needed room—the conditions and supports sustaining an individual/collective movement of thinking. Such movement is revealed as necessarily receptive, inciting community (re)making. Its inspirited nature is revealed through participatory modes of being and associated habits embracing knowledge-making as generative, elemental to being human, in need of other(s), assuming temporal/spatial agency, and interdependent with imagination, instilling embodied understandings.     

THE CO-AUTHORED CURRICULUM: HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS’ REASONS FOR INCLUDING STUDENTS’ EXTRA-CURRICULAR INTERESTS IN THEIR TEACHING

There is increasing evidence of a gap between curricular requirements and what students actually want to know. One of the factors influencing what is taught in the classroom is teachers’ attitudes towards integrating their students’ interests. This study investigated what prompts high-school teachers who prepare students for national matriculation examination to adjust the curriculum to match their students’ interests. In the first stage of the study, 350 students’ biology questions that are not covered by the Israeli biology curriculum were presented to 15 experienced biology teachers. These teachers provided 19 reasons why they would or would not address these questions in their teaching. In stage 2, these 19 reasons were presented to another 175 high-school teachers from different disciplines. These teachers were asked to rank the importance of each reason in deciding whether to include or exclude topics raised by the student which are not required by the curriculum. Based on these answers, the 19 reasons were classified into four groups: civic literacy, curricular compatibility, topic suitability, and curricular limitations. The findings show that demographic factors such as gender, experience, and sector, as well as the subject taught by the teacher, all influence decisions. Thus, many teachers are aware of the interest gap, but the solutions and the attention given to this problem vary.