Effects of Inquiry-Based Teacher Practices on Science Excellence and Equity

Abstract

Within science education reforms, a pedagogical shift from a teacher-centered, textbook-based instructional paradigm to a student-centered, inquiry-based model is called for. Despite strong theoretical grounding, there is limited empirical evidence that these reforms will achieve national goals of academic excellence and equity. The author used hierarchical linear models to estimate the extent to which 5 inquiry-based teacher practices promote achievement of all students (excellence) and reduce gaps in achievement among students with different demographic profiles (equity). Findings suggest that teacher practices that improve overall academic excellence simultaneously are as likely to contribute to greater inequities among more and less advantaged students as they are to close persistent achievement gaps.     

Embracing equity and excellence while constructing science teacher identities in urban schools: Voices of new Teachers of Color

We explored how new Teachers of Color grappled with equity and excellence as they were constructing science teacher identities while learning to teach in a teacher education program committed to equity, justice, and excellence, and eventually teaching in urban schools where inequities and injustices persist. The theoretical framing, compiled from various bodies of literature, weaved together what we consider as essential parts of teacher identity construction and provided a lens with which to examine how conceptions of equity and excellence that the study participants were constructing meshed with their multiple identities, considerations on legitimate knowledge production, and dialectical relationships with which they grappled. Using transcendental phenomenology, we learned from and with three Black and Latinx teachers and their narratives. The teachers intertwined similarly and differently their evolving conceptions of equity and excellence into their evolving science teacher identities as they engaged in forms of contentious local practice and reflected on their experiences as science Teachers of Color teaching predominately Students of Color. Their multiple identities were meshed with histories of larger institutions—science, schooling, and society—and together these were shaping their conceptions of equity and excellence. The intermingling of equity and excellence, which was guiding the curricular and instructional decisions they were making in their classrooms, was also linked to what they considered as legitimate knowledge production in science classes and what counted as knowledge that their students needed to know at different times. The various dilemmas defined by opposing poles with which they were grappling also functioned as scales on which their coordinated equity-excellence unit of meaning was forming. Based on the study, we offer insights into practices that science teacher educators may consider as they prepare new teachers, and work with practicing teachers, to embrace and coordinate equity and excellence in their ever-developing science teacher identities.     

再论大学招生的卓越性与公平性——兼谈中国人民大学自主招生“圆梦计划”的价值与局限

大学招生在高等教育实现“卓越性”与“公平性”的目标中起着至关重要的作用。美国的大学在招生中享有极高的自主性,它们有权制定反映本校办学特征的招生政策,并最终有效地实现大学招生的卓越与公平目标。中国人民大学积极尝试在自主招生中兼顾“卓越”与“公平”理念,今年推出的“圆梦计划”具有表率和实践作用,可以激发其他大学在招生中更加合理地追求“卓越”与“公平”。但是由于受自主招生人数的限制,“圆梦计划”受益学生人数少、候选学校有限,因而有一定的局限性。     

EXZELLENZ UND EQUITY: NEUE BILDUNGSTHEORETISCHE PERSPEKTIVEN FÜR EIN ALTES SPANNUNGSVERHÄLTNIS

EXCELLENCE AND EQUITY: APPLYING NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE THEORY OF EDUCATION TO A TRADITIONALLY TENSE RELATIONSHIP – The majority of international assessments of school performance, as well as the international standards-based education reform focus on optimising the skills of children who perform poorly in school. This article, however, places the focus on the top?performers (“excellence”) and links this with the theory of equal opportunities (“equity”). The article follows two main lines of argument. The argument relating to the theory of education deems the achievement of equal opportunities and equity likely only if and when all children start from an equal position and are then allowed to develop unequally and appropriately, according to their individual talents. The second argument highlights the tense relationship between excellence and equity with regard to school children’s varying home backgrounds, and asks how intellectual potential can best be discovered and encouraged. At the same time, the article demonstrates that the concept of accelerated learning, in differentiating between individuals within homogenous groups of learners, opens up a number of interesting perspectives and can ultimately redress the tense relationship between excellence and equity.     

We can Achieve if We Receive: Examining the Effects of Out-of-School Time Activities on Black Student Achievement in Mathematics

Using policy discourse analysis, the author analyzed 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities over a five-year period to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions represented in diversity action plans. Discourses of marketplace, excellence, managerialism, and democracy emerged and served to construct images of the diverse individual as a commodity, entrepreneur, and change agent. These findings suggest that the dominance of the marketplace discourse may situate the diverse individual as a resource to be exploited and inspire entrepreneurial endeavors rather than change-making activism. Diversity action plans in their current form may unintentionally undermine the achievement of their equity goals.     

理解转型期教育公平应有的三个支点

公平与优异是教育发展追求的两大目标 ,在人类社会发展的不同阶段 ,教育公平与优异出现过四种组合形态。当前我国教育发展正处于公平与优异关系的第三种组合形态 ,教育公平程度已经有了很大提高。理解现阶段教育公平的关键是要立足于初级阶段的基本国情 ,结合当时当地的经济条件和教育基础 ,坚持历史的和发展的观点 ,遵循教育活动的自身规律     

Excellence for all children false promises! The failure of current policy for inclusive education and implications for schooling in the 21st century

This paper argues that the claims of current UK education policy, for children with special educational needs (SEN) toprovide excellence and equality of opportunity, are false. Critically examined are issues of social justice and equity in relation to the work of disability theorists and this critique is then applied to recent policy in education, in particular the Green Paper Excellence for All Children; Meeting Special Educational Needs, to demonstrate that as long as the organization of schooling, the curriculum, and assessment and testing procedures remain unchallenged, equal educational opportunity will remain amyth. In conclusion, having shown that the central energy in educational change seems to be devoted to perpetuating the status quo, thus reinforcing inequality and discrimination and precluding excellence for all children, this paper attempts toset anew agendafor the 21st century that might possibly offer agenuine entitlement for all children to an equal educational opportunity. Although the paper is centrally concerned with a critique of policy in the UK, it is believed that the implications have international relevance as they are fundamental issues relating to human rights and equity.     

Discourses,decisions, designs: ‘special’ education policy-making in New South Wales,Scotland, Finland and Malaysia

This comparative analysis investigates the influence of neo-liberal and inclusive discourses in ‘special’ education policy-making in New South Wales, Scotland, Finland and Malaysia. The centrality of competition, selectivity and accountability in the discourses used in New South Wales and Malaysia suggests a system preference for neo-liberal solutions to education policy problems. The focus on excellence with equity, together with proactive approaches to student support in Scotland and Finland, however, is representative of a more interventionist government approach grounded in social democracy. It is argued that an inclusive approach is conducive to the achievement of both excellence and equity in students’ learning outcomes, whereas countries that have pursued market-driven models involving competition for places in selective institutions tend to have poorer educational outcomes and wider levels of inequality.     

Excellence and education

Demands for excellence have achieved national prominence. Educators need to include the state, civism, and equity within the framework of defining excellence. Rightist and leftist philosophic/social views differ in approach and solution. Norms, quality, and selectivity are slogans of the Right. Equality, justice, and inclusion are the watchwords of the Left. With a traditional view of society currently ascendant, liberals must meet the challenge. For the sake of equity all must be educated in core subjects, using varied approaches, for a productive, competent citizenry. For those who can produce at a higher level in the arts, humanities, or science, teachers, resources, and standards must nurture, guide, and challenge. Excellence, as a standard open to continual revision and assessment, thus emerges as a goal for all.     

Recruitment of Minorities into Natural Resources Educational Programs

A look at programs aimed at making affirmative action work, at promoting some other form of equity, or at achieving equity and excellence.     

Mobilisieren und Optimieren

Looking at the conflictual constitution of educational systems by equality and excellence, this paper examines the discursive formation of two political rationalities in the contemporary German educational system that are directly opposed. While early childhood and primary education discourses are dominated by a terminology of equity, tertiary education institutions such as universities are described with a terminology of excellence that has become a reference point for political interventions and institutional reform processes.Taking up the theoretical position of hegemony-theory, governmentality studies and system theory, the paper analyzes the rules of justification these hegemonic discourses refer to by employing a discourse analysis of strategic, conceptional, and institutional texts of the German education policy discourse between 2003 and 2010. The paper puts forth the thesis that mobilizing and optimizing represent the common principles of equality and excellence as rationalities of the maximal mobilization of educational ressources.     

Constructing views of science tied to issues of equity and diversity: A study of beginning science teachers

In this study, we examined the discursive and social practices of a teacher educator (the first author) and her eight beginning science teachers in a course on the nature of science and issues of equity and diversity. We focused our investigation on beginning science teachers' views of science and science teaching, as well as the grounds they offered for their views. We organized our discussion of the nature of science, teacher learning, and grounds for views along three dimensions: personal, social, and political. We found that beginning teachers routinely drew from only one of these three dimensions to support their views of the nature of science and ways to represent science to all students. In our implications, we recommend that teacher educators encourage teacher learners to examine personal, social, and political grounds carefully and critically in the process of constructing or revising their views. We argue that attention to these three dimensions of grounds for views will assist beginning teachers in adopting nature of science positions that are broad and complex, that more clearly reflect the goals of equity and excellence, and thus, that hold greater promise for achieving a science education inclusive of all students. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 53–76, 2003     

公平而卓越:世界教育发展的新追求

随着知识经济和全球化时代的到来,各国政府和国际组织从政策法案到具体实践,从基础教育到高等教育,都已经不再满足于一般意义上的教育公平和教育质量,公平而卓越已成为当今世界教育新的发展趋势和追求.     

Barriers to Excellence Our Children at Risk

E&E reviews books, special journal issues, films, television specials, etc. related to educational equity and excellence. While reviews are solicited, proposals are welcome.     

Excellence for All: A Nietzschean-inspired approach in professional higher education

Europe’s objectives of economic growth and job creation require large numbers of professionals who are willing and able to innovate and rise above themselves. In this article, a concept of excellence is developed that can be broadly applied in professional higher education. This concept of excellence derives from three concepts which the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche developed in The Gay Science (2001/1887): self-transcendence, self-control and self-styling. By starting with Nietzsche’s radical thoughts, the author aims to grasp the probabilities and challenges of preparing all students for their professional future. Several proposals for educational practice are outlined based on this perspective of ‘excellence for all’.     

闽、湘、川3省社会阶层高等教育机会差异的初步调查

本对闽、湘、川3省部分高校内社会阶层高等教育机会差异的调查分析表明，当前我国社会阶层高等教育机会差异主要体现为农业劳动阶层、失业人员阶层与其它各阶层的差异；各类高校在缩小社会阶层高等教育机会差异方面有不同地位和作用。基于以上分析，本提出了当前应选择公办高职院校作为缩小社会阶层高等教育机会差异的突破口；在入学要求(包括学费和成绩)、学位层次等方面进一步完善多样化高等教育体系的建议。     

国外发达城市教育改革对南京教育现代化的启示

近年来新加坡和波士顿进行了以公平、卓越、效率为主题的教育改革。两个城市的教育改革虽因背景不同有差异,但呈现出下列共同特点：政府重视教育的战略地位,加大资金投入;继续推进教育平等,关注不同群体的教育需求;追求优质教育,提升教育品质;推进中小学教育信息化。在继续推进教育现代化的过程中,南京应关照上述国外发达城市教育改革的历程,做好比较、鉴别工作,吸取适合自己的改革经验。     

美国教育领域“肯定性行动”为何要转向--兼论新时代的教育公平观

美国教育领域"肯定性行动"目标群体态度、价值观念与执行路线的新转向源于少数族裔与主流族裔、亚裔与教育机构以及教育机构与政府之间的相互博弈,其转向背后反映"个体平等"与"差异公平"理念的同时,体现了利益群体对新教育公平观的诉求。在我国新时代社会主要矛盾转向的当口,借鉴美国教育领域"肯定性行动"转向呈现的经验与教训,铸牢中华民族共同体意识、增进教育治理中的跨文化理解能力、以"公平而有质量的教育"为目标构建多样性治理模式,对有效优化教育公平结构和构筑我国新时代的教育公平理论具有重大意义。     

Seeking excellence in the move to a mass system: Institutional responses of key Chinese comprehensive universities

Since the late 1990s the Chinese government has implemented two key policies for the development of higher education. The first was launching Project 985, with the purpose of seeking excellence through creating internationally competitive universities. The second was a radical move to a mass system of higher education. In this context, China’s top universities have faced dual missions, each with their challenges: playing key roles in the revolutionary expansion process on the one hand and closing the gap between them and top universities around the world through the implementation of Project 985, on the other. It is thus important to know about how these institutions have transformed themselves for excellence through the implementation of these policies. With the three cases of Peking, Nanjing and Xiamen Universities, this paper aims to examine each institutional response and the broad changes that have come about in these top Chinese comprehensive universities. It looks especially at the divergent trajectories these institutions have followed in balancing their elite and mass education functions, their global, national and local missions, the pursuit of excellence alongside of a commitment to equity, efforts at curricular comprehensivization while preserving unique historical strengths, and finally globalization and localization. From two higher education frameworks, one based on epistemological considerations and the other on political philosophy, that are equally important in light of China’s traditions, the paper concludes that Chinese universities will continuously but selectively respond to the national expansion policy with various institutional models of seeking excellence that enable them to contribute to Chinese society and the global community in the future.