An Environmental Approach to Marine Science K-12

Abstract

Providing professional development for science teachers, Teachers in the Woods is a 6-week summer research experience in the national forests of the Pacific Northwest. Participants contributed to the scientific understanding of forest ecosystem functioning and later created local projects as forest ecology fieldwork for their students. Teachers were surveyed 3 times during the year and interviewed onsite. A standardized performance assessment measured student progress. The project changed teachers' approach to teaching and created greater motivation, confidence, knowledge, and skills in teaching biology and environmental science using field projects. Teachers attributed their success to enduring professional contacts with scientists and to their field experience. Evaluations also revealed major factors that affect the success of student field projects.     

我国科学教育专业发展的现状及面临的困境透析

科学教育作为一个新兴专业,由于缺乏权威性的指导意见,在我国的发展面临诸多困境：专业建设缺乏规范化研究;课程体系、教学内容、教学方式陈旧落后;教学资源匮乏,师资队伍薄弱。针对存在的问题,借鉴美国的成功经验,科学教育专业发展应出台《科学教师专业标准》,改革课程体系、教学内容和教学方式,加强教学资源建设。     

美国科学教师专业发展标准及其启示

美国科学课程教师专业发展标准是美国科学课程教师培养的重要依据,其特点为:重视科学课程教师正确的科学观与探究能力的形成,为科学课程教师构建综合、完整的知识结构,倡导终身、连续、一体化的培养模式。我国应加快研制自己的科学课程教师专业发展标准,使我国科学课程教师专业发展体现终身性、综合性、探究性与创新性。     

加快图书流通服务力度充分开发利用馆藏文献——对我馆流通工作的思考

针对我馆馆藏献的利用状况及存在的问题，提出只有大力加强图书流通服务的力度，才能充分开发利用馆藏献，并以我馆图书流通服务中的具体工作加以阐明。     

Making Way for Technology Education

This paper discusses two major issues confronting any attempts to make technology education an integral part of the school curriculum. The first issue has to do with the lack of agreement—stemming from its diverse origins—regarding the core concepts, instructional strategies, and student outcomes that should comprise technology education. Characterizations of eight different approaches are provided. The second issue concerns the relationship of technology education to the existing school curricula, specifically, the science curriculum and vocational education. The historical connections between science and technology are discussed, and the argument is made that the traditional second-class position of technology in the school curriculum needs to be remedied in favor of making science and technology equal curricular partners. Vocational education, too, needs to be modernized to move from narrow skills training to education for the technological work place.     

The Impact of a State Systemic Initiative on U.S. Science Teachers and Students

This study investigated the extent to which a State Systemic Initiative (SSI), a National Science Foundation program designed to improve science education across an entire state, implemented in the United States, could reform science education. Impacts that were measured included teachers' instructional practices, professional community, influence of the SSI on school policy, external influences on science instruction, and family involvement. In addition, students' views of instructional practice, school community and family involvement were measured. A retrospective comparative design was used to collect survey data from 46 middle schools; 23 that had significant amounts of contact with the SSI and 23 matched schools that had little to no contact with the SSI. The results suggested there were important differences favoring schools whose science teachers had participated in the SSI. Included were differences in the use of standards-based instruction, and external influences on science instruction teachers' influence on policy. No differences between the two groups were found for professional community or family involvement. For students, significant differences were only found for access to standards-based instruction. Results imply that SSIs can help change specific aspects of the system, but broader impacts are more difficult to achieve.     

Effective Professional Development in Science and Mathematics Education: Teachers' and Facilitators' Views

This study compares the views of teachers and professional development facilitators about effective professional development (PD). We analyzed interviews with 72 teacher participants and 23 PD facilitators involved in nine science and mathematics PD projects. The teachers' themes for characterizing effective PD included classroom application, teacher as learner, and teacher networking. Similarly, the PD facilitators discussed effective PD as having classroom application and experiences for teachers as learners. In addition, PD facilitators shared the need to develop collegial relationships with teachers and improve teacher knowledge. These views correspond to some of the standards and recommendations described in policy and research documents on effective PD. Criteria of effective PD in these documents that the participants did not mention included: (1) challenging teachers' content and pedagogical content knowledge with transformative learning experiences, (2) encouraging teacher leadership for sustained support, and (3) focusing on student learning by instructing teachers on how to use student data to inform their teaching practice. Our findings have implications for designing PD that reflects the criteria of standards-based reform.     

Positional identity and science teacher professional development

The aim of this study was to understand the positional identity of three African American secondary science teachers. Positional identity was operationally defined in terms of race, ethnicity, economic status, gender, religion, and age. Positional identity was posited to inform why diverse teachers with differing knowledge and experiences in science exist. An analysis of the findings suggested that the teachers' positional identity was defined beyond race, ethnicity and gender. Although the three science teachers came from very similar social backgrounds and were members of the same racial/ethnic group (African American), their positionality manifested itself in different ways: meanings of their life experiences; orientations to professional development; and future career goals in science education. Thus they possessed multiple positional identities that intersected in various ways which resulted in them having different perceptions of the world and subjectivities as science teachers. Implications included addressing positional identity and the creation of professional development models that are framed around incorporating teacher identity in addition to furthering teachers' personal and professional advancement within science education. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 684–710, 2008     

Professional Development for International Teachers: Examining TPACK and Technology Integration Decision Making

This mixed-methods study explored the impacts of a semester-long technology professional development for secondary school international teachers from developing nations around the world. We used (a) a survey approach to examine international teachers' perceived technology integration abilities using the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework and (b) a design task to understand their rationale behind technology integration decisions. As a group (N = 16), international teachers reported increased abilities in all TPACK domains. Qualitative analysis of their rationales revealed that though teachers learned to consider the affordances of technology, technology access issues were pivotal in their choice and use of technology in instruction planning. With education becoming increasingly global, the study has implications for the motivation and design of technology professional development programs for international teachers.     

Understanding the complexity of teacher interaction in a teacher professional learning community

In this study, we examine a professional learning community of primary school teachers developing a joint school-based curriculum for science and technology (S&T) education. Team meetings were observed over the course of one school year and the participating teachers and school head were interviewed. An essential factor in the team’s collaboration was its ability to achieve synthesis, that is, the extent to which the teachers were able to abstract from concrete experiences in S&T education in order to formulate and develop a shared vision and curriculum. They exchanged many examples and were able to create a shared idea highlighting critical elements in their approach to teaching this school subject. However, the teachers experienced difficulties in determining the level at which a school-based curriculum should be defined. The outcomes of this team’s collaboration are discussed in terms of leadership and the aims of the S&T innovation.     

Making secondary education relevant for all: reflections on science education in an expanding sub-sector

Abstract

This think piece focuses on relevance in secondary science education to propose a research agenda for contexts in sub-Saharan Africa, where enrolments are expanding from a low base. The notion of sustainable work is used to consider what kind of science education is relevant for students who will continue to become science specialists and those who will apply their science knowledge in non-specialist paid and unpaid roles. Drawing on insights from the literature on science and indigenous knowledge, on education for sustainable development and sociolinguistic analysis of science classrooms, it is argued that making connections between informal and formal knowledge is essentially the work of secondary education. Understanding secondary education in these terms highlight its vital contribution to addressing sustainable development, which at its heart recognises the interconnectedness of human and natural systems.     

Making the case for a material-dialogic approach to science education

ABSTRACT

Science is concerned with understanding the world. As such, engaging with the materiality of that world is integral to both empirical experimentation and theorising within science. However, it has been recognised for some time that the way scientists learn about the world and the way that young people learn about science cannot be simply equated. This difference has been pronounced in recent decades by the dominance of constructivist and social-constructivist theories of learning, which focus on the development of concepts in the minds of people. Whilst these theories have yielded insight into the complexity of learning, the role of the material remains undertheorised, not only within practical science inquiry, but also in relation to the broader materiality of classrooms. Through a detailed critical literature review, this paper demonstrates the need for a stronger theoretical frame through which to understand the role of the material in the learning and pedagogy of science. Building upon the gaps and possibilities that this review reveals, we outline a new material-dialogic theory via a synthesis of Barad’s Agential Realism and Bakhtinian dialogic theory. The significance of this paper lies in offering a theoretical basis for more effective practice.     

Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM instructional practices: An analytic review of the literature

This article reviews current scholarship about how to promote change in instructional practices used in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. The review is based on 191 conceptual and empirical journal articles published between 1995 and 2008. Four broad categories of change strategies were developed to capture core differences within this body of literature: disseminating curriculum and pedagogy, developing reflective teachers, enacting policy, and developing shared vision. STEM education researchers largely write about change in terms of disseminating curriculum and pedagogy. Faculty development researchers largely write about change in terms of developing reflective teachers. Higher education researchers largely write about change in terms of enacting policy. New work often does not build on prior empirical or theoretical work. Although most articles claim success of the change strategy studied, evidence presented to support these claims is typically not strong. For example, only 21% of articles that studied implementation of a change strategy were categorized as presenting strong evidence to support claims of success or failure of the strategy. These analyses suggest that the state of change strategies and the study of change strategies are weak, and that research communities that study and enact change are largely isolated from one‐another. In spite of the weak state of the literature, some conclusions related to the design of change strategies can be drawn from this review. Two commonly used change strategies are clearly not effective: developing and testing “best practice” curricular materials and then making these materials available to other faculty and “top‐down” policy‐making meant to influence instructional practices. Effective change strategies: are aligned with or seek to change the beliefs of the individuals involved; involve long‐term interventions, lasting at least one semester; require understanding a college or university as a complex system and designing a strategy that is compatible with this system. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 952–984, 2011     

对教师培训回归原点的思考

教师的成长首先应该是人的成长,然后才是专业的成长。教师培训绝不是简单的教学技能的传递。作为教师教育者——研训教师来说,要关注不同阶段教师专业成长规律和成年人学习规律,帮助一线教师在学习探索的过程中认清自我、发展自我,结合多样化的学习方式,回归教师教育的原点。     

从师范教育到教师教育:特殊教育师资培养的范式转变

自 2 0世纪 80年代以来 ,特殊师范教育逐渐成为我国特殊教育师资培训的主体 ,这是当时特殊教育发展的使然。但是随着社会变迁 ,特殊教育的发展 ,带有一次性、终结性的职前教育特色的特殊师范教育面临着严重的困境 ,已经越来越难以适应新的形势需要。以特殊教师教育代替特殊师范教育标志着特殊教育师资培养的范式转变。奠基于终身教育思想和特殊教育教师专业化发展的特殊教师教育有着自己鲜明的特征并蕴涵着深刻的思想内涵。     

Supporting university content specialists in providing effective professional development: the educative role of evaluation

Evaluation of professional development (PD) has traditionally been composed of summative and formative feedback, and has focused on assessing the extent to which the PD impacts participating teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This study establishes an additional purpose for PD evaluation – as educative opportunities for professional developers, particularly for PD providers who are university-level content specialists (e.g. scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, engineers). Through analysis of data collected as state-wide evaluators for one US Midwest state’s Improving Teacher Quality Grant PD programs, and utilizing an analysis methodology which we term ‘recommendation traces,’ we examine formative evaluation recommendations that we made to four different PD projects over three years. Findings from this study shed light on how content specialists who work in PD projects can learn about effective PD through project evaluation efforts.     

Large‐scale interventions in science education: The road to utopia?

This article provides commentary on the five articles in this issue on large‐scale interventions in science education for diverse student groups in varied educational settings. Using these articles as a point of departure, I discuss three challenges to science education research and practice. The first concerns the changed meaning of science education reform over the past two decades. The science education research and development community must be aware of the shifting policy and public awareness context of their work and react accordingly if it wishes for its work to make a difference in the lives of teachers and students. The second addresses the importance of teacher professional development and the role that well‐designed and internally valid research plays in developing knowledge in this area. The third discusses the chaotic and contradictory nature of educational policy in this country and argues that our field needs to align our research work with the ways in which real and impactful decisions are made about education in general and science education in particular. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 420–427, 2012     

论科学教育与人文教育的融合

论述了强化专业课程的人文性既是当前理工科教育的现实需要,也是实现人文教育与科学教育的融合必经之路,并探讨了增强学科教学的历史感与文化性等几种强化专业课程人文性的方法。     

Addressing contradictions in teachers’ practice through professional learning: an activity theory perspective

ABSTRACT

This case study focuses on the professional learning of 38 K-9 teachers who engaged in a professional development (PD) programme in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through collaborative action research (CAR). Through the lens of CHAT or Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, the author examined what teachers were learning, the contextual factors that influenced their learning and classroom practice, and the outcomes of this PD initiative. The changing activity system of the teachers is described, as well as how they addressed contradictions in their practice. Addressing these contradictions resulted in an expansion of their object and professional growth. The study contributes to a growing body of research in teacher education which applies CHAT as a conceptual framework to understand teacher professional learning and how interactions among activity system components influence teachers’ development and practice.     

试论工科专业基础课程中学习兴趣的培养

目前工科中的专业教育和专业基础教育,在内容上往往是专业教育的简化版,而忽视对学生专业兴趣的培养、忽略素质教育,也忽视文化的传承,即重知识轻文化.本文结合作者承担的<土木工程概论>课程教学改革实践,论述了在专业教育中注重素质教育的重要性,从教学理念和教学内容方面介绍了在工科专业课程教改建设方面取得的一些经验.