Metaphors of knowing,doing and being: Capturing experience in teaching and teacher education

In this article, Bateson's idea of human beings thinking with metaphors and learning through stories is examined as it played out within accumulated educational research studies. Five storied metaphors illuminating knowing, doing and being are highlighted from five investigations involving different research teams. In the cross-case analysis, the importance of narrative exemplars emerges, along with the significance of metaphors serving as proxies for teachers' experiences. The plotlines of the metaphors, the morals of the metaphors and the truths of the metaphors are also discussed. In the end result, the value of metaphors in surfacing teachers' embedded, embodied knowledge of experience is affirmed as well as the deftness of the narrative inquiry research method in metaphorically capturing pre-service and inservice teachers' storied experiences.     

Longitudinal relations between teaching-related motivations and student-reported teaching quality

Teaching-related motivations are often assumed to influence teaching quality; however, the empirical evidence regarding the directionality of such influences is scarce. The present study thus examined the reciprocal links between teaching-related motivations (self-efficacy and enthusiasm for teaching) and student-reported teaching quality (classroom management, learning support, and cognitive activation). Two-level cross-lagged panel analyses across three time points (with an initial sample of 165 secondary-level mathematics teachers and their 4273 students) revealed no significant cross-lagged effects when teachers' stable inter-individual differences are taken into account. Our findings suggest that teachers' motivations are remarkably stable over time.     

Teachers' experiences and teaching civic engagement beyond self-regarding individualism

Worldwide, a political, economic and cultural context stressing self-interest, which I describe as self-regarding individualism, restricts the commitment of governments, schools and people to the common good in civic life. In such a context, this study uses a narrative inquiry methodology to explore through the narrative texts of two social studies teachers from the United States the way their experiences help them teach civic engagement beyond self-regarding individualism. These experiences are a valuable teaching resource because they represent the teachers' enduring effort to move beyond this type of individualism.     

浅谈传统玩具在中小学科学教学中的应用

中国传统玩具是中华民族传统智慧的结晶。合理地运用传统具,可以培养学生的观察、思维和创新能力,促进学生主动学习、探索。本文对传统玩具进行了分类,并结合具体的课程,探讨了在中小学科学教学中的应用。     

Scaffolding Science Talk: The role of teachers' questions in the inquiry classroom

Teachers' questions in the inquiry classroom not only explore and make student thinking explicit in the class but also serve to guide and scaffold it. Several studies analysing teachers' questions and their categories have been reported; however the need for a fine-grained analysis has been felt, especially in the inquiry setting. This study attempts a fine-grained analysis of the rich variety of teachers' questions and their roles in an inquiry science classroom, which are illustrated with vignettes from our classes. We present a sequential typology of teachers' questions that emerged from this empirical study, one that brings out their progression in an inquiry class. We juxtapose them with the ones asked during traditional teaching. We also examine, through teachers' self-reports, their motivations for questioning. This work leads towards a characterisation of the complex process of teaching science as an inquiry that teachers interested in moving towards more constructivist teaching practices in their classrooms may find helpful.     

Understanding science teaching effectiveness: examining how science-specific and generic instructional practices relate to student achievement in secondary science classrooms

ABSTRACT

In order to create conditions for students’ meaningful and rigorous intellectual engagement in science classrooms, it is critically important to help science teachers learn which strategies and approaches can be used best to develop students’ scientific literacy. Better understanding how science teachers’ instructional practices relate to student achievement can provide teachers with beneficial information about how to best engage their students in meaningful science learning. To address this need, this study examined the instructional practices that 99 secondary biology teachers used in their classrooms and employed regression to determine which instructional practices are predictive of students’ science achievement. Results revealed that the secondary science teachers who had well-managed classroom environments and who provided opportunities for their students to engage in student-directed investigation-related experiences were more likely to have increased student outcomes, as determined by teachers’ value-added measures. These findings suggest that attending to both generic and subject-specific aspects of science teachers’ instructional practice is important for understanding the underlying mechanisms that result in more effective science instruction in secondary classrooms. Implications about the use of these observational measures within teacher evaluation systems are discussed.     

Secondary teachers' conceptual metaphors of teaching and learning: Changes over the career span

Much has been written about the persistence of teacher beliefs upon entering and exiting preservice teacher education programs. Little research has explored teacher beliefs over the career span. Through an online survey instrument teachers (n = 110) choose which teaching metaphors most closely match their own under three conditions: upon first entering the profession, at present, and ideally. Analysis indicates that 63% of teachers changed their conception of teaching over time. While very experienced teachers began teaching with teacher-centered conceptual metaphors, over the course of their careers some move toward student-centered metaphors. Newer teachers have a tendency to begin with and aspire to student-centered conceptual metaphors. Teachers whose metaphors for current and desired practice differed identified obstacles to, and suggestions for, a better fit.     

深化教学改革办出牧医中职特色--从《养猪学》的课程教改谈开去

随着中职办学目标和中职生源状况的变化,中职教学必须与时俱进,作出相应的改革。牧医专业是学校骨干专业,《养猪学》是该专业重要课程之一,文章就如何办好牧医中职,以《养猪学》课程为例提出一些思考。要办出特色,须全面深化教学改革:强化实践,使专业教师真正成为“双师型”教师;调整教材系统;改进教学方法和手段。     

Learning to teach science: Personal epistemologies,teaching goals,and practices of teaching

The purpose of this study was to understand what personal epistemologies and science teaching goals preservice secondary science teachers of a teacher education program in the USA bring with them to their learning to teach and how they translate such beliefs into actions. A set of essay questions, developed through a pilot study, was used to identify preservice teachers’ personal epistemologies and teaching goals at the beginning of science methods instruction. Classroom observation reports, video recorded teaching episodes, lesson plans and self-video reflections were collected to identify connections between their epistemologies, teaching goals, and practice of teaching. Relational and ontological dimensions of epistemological beliefs were found to be useful for understanding preservice teachers’ personal epistemologies and teaching practices. The data suggests that the participants’ espoused teaching goals were relevant to their personal epistemologies when differentiating naïve personal epistemologies from the sophisticated, and their emerging teaching practices demonstrated shifts in personal epistemologies and potential for further development in teaching practices. Findings indicate sources of how teaching practices are shaped. Implications for teacher education include needs for addressing ways to deal with teaching constraints for constructivist teaching approaches, collaboration with content course instructors, critical reflection on field experience, and developing induction programs that support continuing development of emerging teaching practices.     

Maximizing the usage of technology-enhanced teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English program in the Malaysian secondary schools system

This research is attempting to examine the effectiveness in the application of ICT （information and communication technology） and standardize courseware in ETeMS （English for Teaching Mathematics and Science） or PPSMI （Pengajaran and Pembelajaran Sains and Matematic dalam Bahasa Inggeris） in English program in the Malaysian secondary school system. Five dimensions of secondary school （type of school, demographic, leadership quality, teaching and learning culture, and teachers＇ personal and working experience） were examined to determine the maximizing usage of TEC （technology-enhanced classroom） in the learning program. In general, there is a significant difference among factors stated above with maximizing usage of TEC in teaching and learning of science and mathematics in English program. The learning culture is also closely related. In addition, the school and teaching staff are another two essential factors found to be the strong fundamental of maximizing the usage of technology in TEC teaching and learning with towering quality. This study represents an addition to the extant literature on maximizing the usage of technology-enhanced teaching and learning towards the excellence of education in the secondary school system. The maximizing usage of TEC teaching and learning environment within the secondary school system is pivotal towards achieving high quality human capital and improving the efficiency and integrity of technology-enhanced learning of science and mathematics in English program. This study provides further groundwork to assist existing education managers to improve work quality and deliver the maximizing usage of TEC teaching and learning towards the excellence in secondary education.     

Evidence-based teaching: a simple view of “science”

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the insistent claims by advocates of evidence-based teaching that it is a rigorous scientific approach. The paper questions the view that randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses are the only truly scientific methods in educational research. It suggests these claims are often based on a rhetorical appeal which relies on too simple a notion of “science”. Exploring the tacit assumptions behind “evidence-based teaching”, the paper identifies an empiricist and reductionist philosophy of science, and a failure to recognise the complexity of education and pedagogy. Following a discussion of large-scale syntheses of evidence (Hattie’s Visible Learning; the Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit), it examines in detail one strand of the latter concerning sports participation, which is used to illustrate flaws in procedures and the failure to take seriously the need for causal explanations.     

试析新安画派之盛衰及对"后黄山画派"之影响

历史上新安画派曾辉煌一时,在中国绘画史上留下了浓墨重彩的一笔。然而,在中国现当代绘画史中,已很难明显再觅“新安画派”的影迹。是悄然湮没还是以新的面貌悄然崛起,作者在文中阐明了自己的见解。     

Rural,suburban, and urban schools: The impact of school setting on the efficacy beliefs and attributions of student teachers

This study investigated student teachers' efficacy beliefs, to determine if school setting (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban) impacted teachers' sense of efficacy. Each setting group exhibited significant increases in teachers' sense of efficacy following student teaching. The urban student teachers exhibited significantly lower teachers' sense of efficacy. We also examined the attributions (external or internal) the student teachers made following student teaching. The urban student teachers did not make more external attributions than the rural and suburban student teachers, and the patterns of the self-serving attributional bias as well as the fundamental attribution error were apparent.     

Characteristics of teachers' conversations about teaching mean,median, and mode

The study analyzed a conversation among a group of teachers responsible for teaching the concepts of mean, median, and mode. After reading an article describing some specific student difficulties in learning the concepts, teachers were asked to discuss how the teaching of the concepts could be improved. Several claims pertinent to improving teaching practice were offered. Claims focused on the appropriate age at which to introduce statistical concepts, the influence of the state-prescribed curriculum on teaching practice, content-specific teaching strategies, and content-independent teaching strategies. Teachers' claims were discussed in terms of points of departure and agreement with existing empirical research.     

Multicultural education, pragmatism, and the goals of science teaching

In this paper, we offer an intermediate position in the multiculturalism/universalism debate, drawing upon Cobern and Loving’s epistemological pluralism, pragmatist philosophies, Southerland’s defense of instructional multicultural science education, and the conceptual profile model. An important element in this position is the proposal that understanding is the proper goal of science education. Our commitment to this proposal is explained in terms of a defense of an ethics of coexistence for dealing with cultural differences, according to which social argumentative processes—including those in science education—should be marked by dialogue and confrontation of arguments in the search of possible solutions, and an effort to (co-)live with differences if a negotiated solution is not reached. To understand the discourses at stake is, in our view, a key requirement for the coexistence of arguments and discourses, and the science classroom is the privileged space for promoting an understanding of the scientific discourse in particular. We argue for “inclusion” of students’ culturally grounded ideas in science education, but in a sense that avoids curricular multicultural science education, and, thus, any attempt to broaden the definition of “science” so that ideas from other ways of knowing might be simply treated as science contents. Science teachers should always take in due account the diversity of students’ worldviews, giving them room in argumentative processes in science classrooms, but should never lose from sight the necessity of stimulating students to understand scientific ideas. This view is grounded on a distinction between the goals of science education and the nature of science instruction, and demands a discussion about how learning is to take place in culturally sensitive science education, and about communicative approaches that might be more productive in science classrooms organized as we propose here. We employ the conceptual profile model to address both issues. We expect this paper can contribute to the elaboration of an instructional multicultural science education approach that eliminates the forced choice between the goals of promoting students’ understanding of scientific ideas and of empowering students through education.

大学物理教学与学生科学素质的培养

大学物理作为理工科学生一门重要的基础课程,对于培养和提高学生的综合素质和能力具有不可替代的作用。文章对如何在大学物理教学中,改变传统教学模式,将科学素质教育渗透其中进行了具体的分析。     

The role of professional obligations in working to change one's teaching practices

Teaching practices do not change easily. In this article, we explore this phenomenon by viewing teaching as a cultural activity in which teachers' decisions are influenced by professional obligations. We present the cases of two secondary mathematics teachers and share data regarding their expressed goals, their perceived obligations, and their instructional practice. Our findings suggest that perceived obligations hindered the teachers' efforts to change their practice. We argue that efforts to help teachers realize their goals need to acknowledge, and perhaps position as resources, the obligations that teachers perceive as inherent in their professional role.     

大学物理教学与学生科学素质的培养

大学物理作为理工科学生一门重要的基础课程,对于培养和提高学生的综合素质和能力具有不可替代的作用。文章对如何在大学物理教学中,改变传统教学模式,将科学素质教育渗透其中进行了具体的分析。