The Flipped Classroom in Training and Development: Fad or the Future?

This article provides an overview of the characteristics of the flipped classroom, discusses the foundations of this innovative instructional model, and analyzes the possibility of adoption and application to corporate learning platforms. The article assesses whether the flipped classroom is simply a temporary trend in education and learning or has the potential to truly revolutionize instructional design and delivery in the realm of training and development.     

Science Teachers’ Representations of Classroom Practice in the Process of Formative Assessment Design

Formative assessment has been recognized as an essential element of effective classroom practice; as a result, teachers are increasingly required to create formative assessments for their classrooms. This study examines data drawn from a long-term, site-based professional development program that supported a department of biology teachers in the iterative design and enactment of common formative assessment tools. We analyze teacher conversations to understand how teachers collaborated to design formative assessments. Results indicate that when teachers attended to problems of practice related to teaching evolution, increased transparency in their talk helped build consensus about the design of formative assessment tools. These results highlight the importance of encouraging transparency in teacher dialog when they are engaged in collaborative design of formative assessments.     

How Should Creationism and Intelligent Design be Dealt with in the Classroom?

Until recently, little attention has been paid in the school classroom to creationism and almost none to intelligent design. However, creationism and possibly intelligent design appear to be on the increase and there are indications that there are more countries in which schools are becoming battle‐grounds over them. I begin by examining whether creationism and intelligent design are controversial issues, drawing on Robert Dearden's epistemic criterion of the controversial and more recent responses to and defences of this. I then examine whether the notion of ‘worldviews’ in the context of creationism is a useful one by considering the film March of the Penguins. I conclude that the ‘worldviews’ perspective on creationism is useful for two reasons: first it indicates the difficulty of using the criterion of reason to decide whether an issue is controversial or not; secondly, it suggests that standard ways of addressing the diversity of student views in a science classroom may be inadequate. I close by examining the implications of this view for teaching in science lessons and elsewhere, for example in religious education lessons and citizenship lessons and at primary level where subject divisions cannot be made in so clear‐cut a manner.     

Variations of Symbolic Power and Control in the One-to-One Computing Classroom: Swedish Teachers’ Enacted Didactical Design Decisions

This study provides new insights into Swedish teachers’ didactical designs when handling two contemporary challenges regarding the new national curriculum and the increasing digitalisation of schools through one-to-one computing initiatives. The research questions consider how teachers organise physical and digital resources in their classrooms as well as variations in teachers’ pedagogical communication. From a study of 23 one-to-one computing classrooms (using tablets), some ethnographic-inspired methods were applied based on classroom observation and recordings of teachers’ teaching. The findings show two distinct forms of teachers’ classroom organisation that indicate different didactical designs used by teachers to integrate one-to-one computing into the classroom. Variations in teaching resulted in a shift of symbolic power and control from teachers to students, which exploit the potential of using one-to-one computing in the classroom.     

Chester Finn and the Future of Whole Language—and Schooling

This year's crop of college graduates will likely have more concrete information stored away than did the crop of 1905. But they may not be as well educated. And they certainly will find it a harder pull to reach the level of worldly accomplishment than has been expected of college graduates at the turn of a century.     

A Study of the Cooperation in the Classroom

In the past, the teachers are traditionally regarded as information givers; Knowledge flows only one way from teachers to students, while the students are usually considered as information receivers and they are very passive and boring. New syllabus requires cooperation between teachers and students, So teachers may need to re-think their approaches when they teach students, Teachers not only need to build up a positive relationship with the students, but also need to establish a clear understanding of how they expect and want things to be.     

Preservice Teachers‘ Classroom Practice and Their Conceptions of the Nature of Science

The present article describes research carried out in Badajoz (Spain) with student teachers of Primary and Secondary science education. The preservice teachers conceptions of the nature of science were analyzeda and compared with their classroom practice when teaching a science lesson. The results indicated that there was no correspondence between the conceptions of the nature of science and the classroom practice. The implications of the research for science teacher education are dealt with.     

Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Understanding of the Nature of Science and Perceptions of the Classroom Learning Environment

This study investigated prospective elementary teachers’ understandings of the nature of science and explored associations with their guided-inquiry science learning environment. Over 500 female students completed the Nature of Scientific Knowledge Survey (NSKS), although only four scales were analyzed–Creative, Testable, Amoral, and Unified. The learning environment was assessed using previously-validated and reliable scales from What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) and the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI). Analyses indicated moderate multiple correlations that were statistically significant (p?<?0.01) between Creative (R?=?0.22), Testable (R?=?0.29), and Unified (R?=?0.27), and a positive learning environment. Regression coefficients revealed that Open-Endedness was a significant independent predictor of students’ understanding of the role of creativity in science (β?=?0.16), while Cooperation, Open-Endedness, and Material Environment were linked with understanding the testable nature of science (β?=?0.10–0.12). Interview questions probed possible relationships between an improved understanding of the nature of science and elements of a positive classroom environment. Responses suggested that an appropriate level of open-endedness during investigations was very important as this helped students grapple with abstract nature of science concepts and shift their conceptions closer to a more realistic view of scientific practice.     

The Interplay of the Classroom Learning Environment and Inquiry‐based Activities

This quasi‐experimental study investigates how the classroom learning environment changed after inquiry‐based activities were introduced and student questioning was encouraged. Three science teachers and three classes of fifth graders (n=92) participated in this study. The analysis of covariance reveals that although the experimental group students perceived that their teacher’s support was significantly lower than that for the comparison group did (p< 0.05), they were significantly more involved in learning (p< 0.05) than their counterparts. Classroom observations of student questioning and inquiry activities revealed that those students with high quality levels in asking or responding to questions outperformed their counterparts in the inquiry ability of designing experimental procedures.     

Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Behaviour Problems and the Effectiveness of Different Disciplinary Methods

The purpose of the present study was to examine students’ perceptions of troublesome behaviour and the effectiveness of different disciplinary methods. To this end, 350 secondary school students completed the Classroom Behaviour Problems and Attitude Towards Disciplinary Methods questionnaire, and the results indicate that ‘talking out of turn’ was the only behaviour perceived by both teachers and students to be most troublesome and most frequent. Deterrents that were perceived as most effective included being sent to the principal’s office, detention, and getting an unfavourable report sent home. Regarding incentives, free time, a positive letter home, receiving a good mark, and getting a favourable academic report sent home were perceived to be most effective, while private praise and reprimands were also seen as an effective means for increasing appropriate behaviour. However, previous research suggests that teachers are choosing to use other strategies that are not seen by students as effective. Therefore, it was concluded that both teachers and students need to be educated regarding the results found in the current study, so that effective management strategies can be developed and used by teachers.     

A Research in the Practice of Autonomous and Cooperative Virtual Learning of University Students

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Improving the Design of Children's Books Art and Design Applied to Books——Research in the UK

This article is mainly on the research of how to improve the design of children’s books.