Preparing new teachers for inclusive schools and classrooms

The policy of including pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools and classes is now firmly established in many jurisdictions worldwide. Successful implementation of such policy depends largely on teachers having the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to make it work. This poses a considerable challenge for both teachers and those responsible for Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This article presents the results of a study investigating current Northern Ireland practitioners' perceptions of their initial ITE relative to SEN. The major question under investigation was whether they felt that their ITE prepared them to be effective teachers in inclusive settings. Findings confirm research in other jurisdictions that teachers feel unprepared for inclusion. Emerging from this are the participants' recommendations for the content and delivery of SEN courses in ITE. Their recommended model of SEN delivery is a combination of ‘permeation’ plus a ‘stand alone’ course with the focus on student characteristics, behaviour management, assessment and evaluation, and SEN legislation.     

学校教师对农民工子女内隐偏见研究

本研究采用内隐联想测试(IAT)探索教师对农民工子女的偏见状况。被试为54名小学教师(普通公办小学教师40名,农民工子弟学校教师14名),测试使用材料为农民工子女照片、城市儿童照片各四张,与学习相关的积极、消极评价词各四个。结果显示两类学校的教师均存在内隐偏见,但两类学校教师的偏见程度不存在显著差异。     

让信息技术走进小学数学课堂

新课程理念下的小学数学课堂教学应充分发挥信息技术的优势,努力促进信息技术与数学学科教学中诸多要素的整合,可以为学生的学习和发展提供丰富多彩的教育环境和有利的学习工具,可以培养学生信息素养以及利用信息技术自主探索、发现问题、解决问题的能力,可以把知识更多、更快地传授给学生,有效地提高课堂教学效率.     

Evolving strategies for using interactive video resources in mathematics classrooms

In order to understand the role of interactive video (IV) in mathematics classrooms, teachers were given a set of IV resources which were very mixed in character and style, and from which they could freely select. These were used in lessons over an extended period, in some cases two years or longer. By interviewing and by observing lessons, it has been possible to draw some tentative conclusions about the relative merits of different styles of IV in mathematics classrooms. IV resources are often managed in a similar way to computers and this similarity seems to have influenced teachers' opinions and choices. However, the affective impact of video was also evident in teachers' choices. A complex picture emerges with no one style dominating.     

Concrete and classrooms: how schools shape educational research

The notion of ‘the school’ as a set of institutional processes and practices that shape the possibilities of educational research forms the focus of this article. It is argued that the discursive and material practices that render schools agencies of cultural reproduction also have effects for what research can be undertaken in them and how. With reference to a series of ‘episodes’ that occurred during research about young people and sexuality in New Zealand, evidence for how schools shape research endeavours is provided. These examples present a complex picture of the way in which schools simultaneously police and are regulated by symbolic boundaries of gender and sexuality. How school disciplinary power works to effect what it is possible to claim about the voluntary nature of student research participation is also explored. It is argued that through the powerful discursive and material practices that occur in schools, these institutions can impede research that attempts to transgress dominant meanings about gender and sexuality.     

高中物理学习策略及其教学对策浅探

探讨高中物理学习策略的主要类型以及高中物理教师在促使学生学习、掌握进而内化有关学科化学习策略过程中的教学对策。     

Socioscience and ethics in science classrooms: Teacher perspectives and strategies

This study explored teacher perspectives on the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) and on dealing with ethics in the context of science instruction. Twenty‐two middle and high school science teachers from three US states participated in semi‐structured interviews, and researchers employed inductive analyses to explore emergent patterns relative to the following two questions. (1) How do science teachers conceptualize the place of ethics in science and science education? (2) How do science teachers handle topics with ethical implications and expression of their own values in their classrooms? Profiles were developed to capture the views and reported practices, relative to the place of ethics in science and science classrooms, of participants. Profile A comprising teachers who embraced the notion of infusing science curricula with SSI and cited examples of using controversial topics in their classes. Profile B participants supported SSI curricula in theory but reported significant constraints which prohibited them from actualizing these goals. Profile C described teachers who were non‐committal with respect to focusing instruction on SSI and ethics. Profile D was based on the position that science and science education should be value‐free. Profile E transcended the question of ethics in science education; these teachers felt very strongly that all education should contribute to their students' ethical development. Participants also expressed a wide range of perspectives regarding the expression of their own values in the classroom. Implications of this research for science education are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 353–376, 2006     

Problem solving strategies of girls and boys in single-sex mathematics classrooms

This study examines patterns in middle-grade boys’ and girls’ written problem solving strategies for a mathematical task involving proportional reasoning. The students participating in this study attend a coeducational charter middle school with single-sex classrooms. One hundred nineteen sixth-grade students’ responses are analyzed by gender according to the solution strategy they used to arrive at their final response to the task. The categories of solution strategies include non-response, purely additive, purely procedural, transition, novice, and mature. The proportions of girls and boys classified as mature in their strategies were essentially equal. However, more than half of girls’ responses were considered purely procedural or purely additive—a proportion double that of boys thus classified.     

Rethinking argumentation-teaching strategies and indigenous knowledge in South African science classrooms

Our response to Hewson and Ogunniyi’s paper focuses, on the one hand, on some of the underlying tensions associated with alinging indigenous knowledge systems with westernized science in South African science classrooms, as suggested by the new, post-apartheid, curriculum. On the other hand, the use of argumentation as a vehicle to accomplish the alignment when the jury is still out on the appropriateness of argumentation as a pedagogical and research tool heightens the tension. We argue that the need for education stakeholders from indigenous heritages to value, know and document their own indigenous knowledge becomes paramount. The textualizing of indigenous knowledge, as has been done in western science, will create repositories for teachers to access and may help with the argumentation strategies such as advocated by the authors.     

A better social unit for American schools

Concerns about leading ethnically diverse urban schools imply that principals of color may play an important role in accomplishing their schools' goals. Findings from this study revealed that in areas of image management and relationship development, teachers of color and European American teachers in urban schools perceive their principals' leadership differently. Results revealed that (a) leaders of color were critical in creating an inclusive school among groups of ethnically diverse groups of teachers; (b) due to their racial affiliation, leaders of color played an important role in recruiting and retaining teachers of color; and (c) leaders of color were responsible for ensuring that European American teachers were culturally responsive to students of color.     

农村中小学校舍维修改造问题的病与解

我国农村中小学校舍安全问题自20世纪70年代末起受到关注,几十年间从中央到地方一直在努力解决,却似乎也一直未圆满达到预定的目标.回顾我国农村中小学校舍维修改造的历程,对农村中小学校舍维修改造中存在的种种问题作病理分析.对长效机制的完善进行理论透视,并在此基础上提出解决问题的政策建议,即建立完整的测评制度和奖惩制度,有较强的现实意义.     

Accountability and control in American schools*

Abstract

One of the most controversial and significant of contemporary education reforms has been the teacher accountability movement. From this perspective, low-quality teachers and teaching are a major factor behind inadequate school performance, and a lack of accountability and control in schools is a major factor behind the problem of low-quality teachers and teaching. In turn, to advocates of this reform movement, the solution is to centralize control of schools and hold teachers more accountable. Utilizing a sociology of organizations, occupations and work perspective, the objective of this article was to offer a critique of the teacher accountability perspective and movement. This article draws from, and summarizes, the results of a series of empirical research projects on the levels, distribution and effects of accountability and control in American schools. The argument of the article is that the teacher accountability perspective overlooks some of the most important sources and forms of organizational accountability and control that exist in schools and overlooks the ways schools themselves, and in particular the ways they are managed and organized, contribute to the teacher quality problem. As a result, teacher accountability reforms often do not succeed and can have a negative impact on teacher quality and school performance.     

A cross-cultural comparison of instructor communication in American and French classrooms

This study addressed patterns and influence of instructor communication in American (US) and in French classrooms. Significant differences were found for instructor use of power bases, affinity-seeking strategies, and nonverbal immediacy. Significant differences were found in student affective learning, cognitive learning, affect toward instructor, and ratings of instruction between the two cultures. In both cultures, however, student affect toward instructor, cognitive learning, and rating of instruction were significantly correlated with instructor affinity-seeking and instructor nonverbal immediacy. Likewise, instructor use of expert power was significantly correlated with student cognitive learning and ratings of instruction in both cultures.     

Developing and validating a scale for measuring teachers’ readiness for flipped classrooms in junior high schools

The aim of this research is to examine the dimensions of junior high school teachers’ readiness for implementing a flipped classroom approach and to construct and validate an instrument—the Flipped-Classroom Teacher Scale (FCTS). Two sets of samples (170 and 495 junior high school teachers) served to explore and confirm the constructs of the FCTS model proposed by this study. The model has been empirically validated via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis. The research participants were from different geographical locations in Taiwan. The FCTS consists of four factors: institutional support, technology self-efficacy (TSE), teacher beliefs and teaching strategies (TS). The results show that the FCTS model is a valid and reliable scale. Teachers may use the FCTS to gain a greater understanding of their instructional design and strategies in relation to flipped classrooms.     

Teachers' implementation of gender-inclusive instructional strategies in single-sex and mixed-sex science classrooms

Debate continues over the benefits, or otherwise, of single-sex classes in science and mathematics, particularly for the performance of girls. Previous research and analyses of the circumstances surrounding the implementation of single-sex classes warn that the success of the strategy requires due consideration of the nature of the instructional environment for both boys and girls, together with appropriate support for the teachers involved. This article reports the circumstances under which teachers were able to implement gender-inclusive strategies in single-sex science classes in coeducational high schools and documents some of the difficulties faced. The study was part of the Single-Sex Education Pilot Project (SSEPP) in ten high schools in rural and urban Western Australia. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered during the project from teachers, students and classroom observations. Overall, it was apparent that single-sex grouping created environments in which teachers could implement gender-inclusive science instructional strategies more readily and effectively than in mixed-sex settings. Teachers were able to address some of the apparent shortcomings of the students' previous education (specifically, the poor written and oral communication of boys and the limited experience of girls with 'hands-on' activities and open-ended problem solving). Further, in same-sex classrooms, sexual harassment which inhibited girls' learning was eliminated. The extent to which teachers were successful in implementing gender-inclusive instructional strategies, however, depended upon their prior commitment to the SSEPP as a whole, and upon the support or obstacles encountered from a variety of sources, including parents, the community, students, and non-SSEPP teachers.