Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don't

This article reports the findings of a review of the international research literature on mentoring beginning teachers. Research identifies a range of potential benefits and costs associated with mentoring, and suggests that the key to maximising the former and minimising the latter lies in the realization of a number of conditions for successful mentoring, such as the effective selection and preparation of mentors. We also highlight a number of limitations in the current evidence base on beginner teacher mentoring. Some implications, for the practice of teacher educators, for policy-makers and for future research, are considered.     

Viewpoint: What we did not learn from the 60s about science curriculum reform

An analysis of our efforts with curriculum reform in science during the 60s is offered. Failure to state the problems and to engage all those interested, involved, and affected is noted. Instead of proceeding with the same tactics and using the same rationale for new reforms, a rationale for focusing upon instructional goals and enlarging the research and development team is presented. Basically, a call for treating science curriculum reform as a science rather than an art is advocated.     

理解视野中科学与教育论

就解释学来说 ,“理解”意味着意义的自我揭示与价值的生成。科学并非只能“说明”,同样需要“理解”。理解科学已逐渐成为当代科学教育的新取向 ,从意义生成的角度而言 ,科学教育应回归“生活世界”。     

反对整合:理解并筹划"原汁原味"的科学教育与人文教育

在有关科学与人文、科学教育与人文教育议题的汗牛充栋的文献中,“整合、融合、综合”科学与人文、科学教育与人文教育成了绝对主流的声音。这一声音的变形是“以人文指引科学,以人文教育为科学教育指引方向”,人文相比科学,人文教育相比科学教育是更高层次的,要用较高层次的行为来整合或统合较低层次的行为。在上述声音中,科学与人文的轻重被看作是科学内容与人文内容的轻重,即科学课与人文课的轻重(以“数理化生”为代表的科学课和以“文史哲艺”为代表的人文课之间的价值比较)。然而,当我们比较科学与人文、科学教育与人文教育的价值时,不知不觉中抽去了科学之所以是科学的精神、性质,人文之所以是人文的精神、性     

Science teaching in science education

Reading the interesting article Discerning selective traditions in science education by Per Sund, which is published in this issue of CSSE, allows us to open the discussion on procedures for teaching science today. Clearly there is overlap between the teaching of science and other areas of knowledge. However, we must constantly develop new methods to teach and differentiate between science education and teaching science in response to the changing needs of our students, and we must analyze what role teachers and teacher educators play in both. We must continually examine the methods and concepts involved in developing pedagogical content knowledge in science teachers. Otherwise, the possibility that these routines, based on subjective traditions, prevent emerging processes of educational innovation. Modern science is an enormous field of knowledge in its own right, which is made more expansive when examined within the context of its place in society. We propose the need to design educative interactions around situations that involve science and society. Science education must provide students with all four dimensions of the cognitive process: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge. We can observe in classrooms at all levels of education that students understand the concepts better when they have the opportunity to apply the scientific knowledge in a personally relevant way. When students find value in practical exercises and they are provided opportunities to reinterpret their experiences, greater learning gains are achieved. In this sense, a key aspect of educational innovation is the change in teaching methodology. We need new tools to respond to new problems. A shift in teacher education is needed to realize the rewards of situating science questions in a societal context and opening classroom doors to active methodologies in science education to promote meaningful learning through meaningful teaching.     

A learning model for science education: Deriving teaching strategies

A learning model for science education was proposed by Appleton (1989), based on Osborne and Wittrock’s generative learning theory (1983) and the Piagetian notions of disequilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation. The model incorporated many aspects of difficulties in learning science experienced by students, as revealed in the LISP projects and similar research. This paper examines how the model may be used to derive teaching strategies: components of the model are analysed in terms of specific types of teacher interventions which could facilitate students’ progress to accommodation. Some established teaching strategies are analysed in terms of these interventions. Specializations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

Community education in the 1980s: What can we learn from experience?

The last ten years have seen a revival of interest in ‘community-oriented’ forms of education as a result of wide spread disillusionment with the trends of social change which have been experienced both in developing and in more highly developed countries. Much of the recent thinking about the dysfunctional nature of conventional schooling in poorer countries has emphasised its alien nature, regarding it as an importation ill-adapted to the development needs or cultural context of these countries. It is too often overlooked that problems of reforming or replacing conventional educational patterns largely derive from the fact that these patterns are in fact firmly rooted in the local situation and up to this time have drawn much of their strength from their very considerable success in performing the tasks allocated to them by their various clienteles. In this paper it is argued that whilst there may well be a pressing need for reform in order to meet changing circumstances and, notably, the mass education situation in which we now find ourselves, we are unlikely to achieve successful reform unless we examine the roots of our problems more thoroughly than we have often been inclined to. There is real danger that we may be carried forward on bandwagons of doubtful relevance to our real situation and that we may once again be distracted from the careful analysis of our own experience without which our judgements and decisions may well prove ill-founded.This paper seeks to examine some of that experience in the hope of identifying some of the considerations we should bear in mind as we consider the potentiality of forms of community education which are currently being urged upon us.     

What we know about doctoral student persistence

Recognizing that the focus of studies on retention has been at the undergraduate level, a hypothesis is presented that to accomplish their objectives of providing scholars for the future, doctoral degree granting universities must focus attention on the factors affecting persistence of doctoral students. Further, due to the changing nature of the doctoral student population, doctoral students must now be defined as adults. Bringing together the themes of retention, persistence, and adult education, this review of the literature presents areas for further research and study.The author wishes to express his thanks to Dr. Nancy Gadbow, Assistant Professor of Adult Education, Syracuse University and Theodore Rector, Associate Dean, School of Education and Human Development, SUNY-Binghamton for their assistance in the preparation of this work.     

What student teaching evaluation instruments tell us about emphases in teacher education programs

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. April, 1995     

Dimensions of evidence,the public understanding of science and science education

This paper explores the nature and type of evidence employed by participants in an issue of public concern. By examining documents and interviewing members of the public involved in the debate, the way in which evidence was used in the arguments for and against the issue was determined. Three dimensions of evidence emerged from the data: formal scientific evidence based on the data; informal evidence (e.g. common sense, personal experience) and wider issues which impinge on the evidence (e.g. environmental or legal concerns). In this particular controversy, it was the questioning of the formal evidence by local scientists which became the 'magic bullet' but pertinent questioning by local nonscientists also framed the debate. The authors suggest that school science curricula should include practice in questioning and manipulating different sorts of real data in a variety of ways so that pupils are equipped and empowered to tackle contemporary issues of this kind.     

学校德育,我们还缺少什么?

黄昏的夕阳下,读到这样一篇文章,打乱了我原本宁静的心绪。海南省一对11岁的双胞胎哥俩因在书店悄悄“拿”了一本爱不释手的图书,被管理人员扣押在小房间里通知家长前来领人,孩子受不了父母的责骂和路人的冷眼,双双跳楼自尽……报上同时登出了哥俩生前的照片,那虎头虎脑的可爱模样与这样惨烈的结局形成了强烈的反差,让人感到揪心的悲痛与惋惜。