Media representation of the Middle East: constructive student engagement in an online environment

As educators interested in pedagogical uses of technology, we utilize the internet to improve students' knowledge and awareness of the world beyond our own national borders. Web-based technologies offer us resources for our courses and can play an important role in promoting a more active style of learning from our students. Yet when teaching about politically sensitive topics, or regions of the world that are less well known, we inevitably access information that is unfiltered, out-of-context, inaccurate, or biased. This paper will be an exploration of how we taught students to critically engage with each other and with online media sources through a class blog discussing the violence in Gaza during January of 2009. During the two-week project, the students investigated this new media landscape (from blogs to YouTube) increasing their levels of techno-literacy by searching beyond their ‘normal’ sources and by recognizing the political bias present in all online venues. Evidence will show how the students went from passive consumers of networked information to active citizen participants as they expressed their opinions, countered each other's sources, and worked out how to fundamentally disagree without losing civility. The paper will detail the pedagogical practices and challenges to creating online spaces for constructive argumentation about highly volatile issues.     

Acknowledging the Religious Beliefs Students Bring Into the Science Classroom: Using the Bounded Nature of Science

Scientific knowledge often appears to contradict many students' religious beliefs. Indeed, the assumptions of science appear contradictory to the metaphysical claims of many religions. This conflict is most evident in discussions of biological evolution. Teachers, in attempts to limit the controversy, often avoid this topic or teach it superficially. Recently, there has been a political effort to teach to the controversy—which some see as a way of introducing religious explanations for biological diversity into science classrooms. Many science educators reject this approach, insisting that teachers limit classroom discussions to science alone. This science only approach leaves the negotiation of alternative knowledge frameworks to students, who are often ill-prepared for such epistemological comparisons. To support students' understanding of science while maintaining their religious commitments, this article explores the utility of emphasizing the boundaries of scientific knowledge and the need to support students in their comparison of contradictory knowledge frameworks.     

“If You Show Who You are,Then They are Going to Try to Fix You”: The Capitals and Costs of Schooling for High-Achieving Latina Students

Schools are supposed to be places where students learn academic and technical skills while also expanding their social networks. Although much research exists that examines academic achievement from a variety of lenses, schools and educators continue to lack insight into the various strengths—or capital—students bring with them to school alongside the barriers—or costs—they face once there. To help bridge the gap between the extant research and what is practiced in schools, we provide insight into what educators can do to capitalize on students' strengths and minimize the barriers to achievement. This article draws from two theoretical frameworks, Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) and Racial Opportunity Cost (ROC), and two qualitative research projects that examined Latina high school students' academic achievement from a capitals and costs perspective. Although significant research has identified assets-based approaches to schooling, our results indicate that the interplay between the norms of the school and the norms the students embraced played a critical role in terms of creating conditions for a positive school experience. Based on our findings, we offer recommendations for educators to address the costs that students experience.     

Knowing and teaching science: the constructivist paradox

This paper addresses the parallel between the changes in students' and teachers' learning advocated by constructivist science educators. It begins with a summary of the epistemology of constructivism and uses a vignette drawn from a set of case studies to explore the impact of a constructivist science in‐service programme on an experienced and formal elementary science teacher. Judged by constructivist standards, the teacher described in the vignette makes very little progress. The irony of applying a constructivist critique to his work, however, is that it fails to treat the teachers' imperfect knowledge of teaching with the same respect as constructivists treat students' imperfect learning of science. The remainder of the paper explores this constructivist paradox, and suggests that‐like students' knowledge of science‐teachers' knowledge of constructivist science teaching is likely to grow through slow and gradual re‐formation of their established understanding of classroom theory and practice.     

Designing a Pedagogy of Inquiry in Teacher Education: Moving from resistance to listening

This paper reports a study of preservice teachers who investigated their own teaching during a field-based component of a mathematics education methods course. The course was designed to engage the preservice teachers in both mathematical and pedagogical inquiry. Analysis of video recordings of course discussions, audiotaped interviews with preservice teachers, audiotaped discussions of instructor's planning meetings, and copies of the instructor's and preservice teachers' journals identified two critical incidents that depict students' resistance to the course directions. Analysis of these critical incidents suggests that prospective teachers' interactions with their students can become the mirror through which we can investigate their interactions with us, as teacher educators, and with our course activities. In this way we might reframe the problem of resistance to one of listening—listening to the students, to each other, and to ourselves.     

Conceptualisation of learning to learn competence and the challenges of implementation: The Estonian experience

The importance of students' learning to learn competence for academic achievement, as well as their well-being at school and in life, is increasingly emphasised by educators and policy makers in national curricula and educational strategies. In an uncertain and complex world, learners need to become autonomous, be able to analyse challenges and apply knowledge in different contexts, address complex tasks, and create new knowledge. This article explores concepts and approaches to the development of students' learning to learn competence in the context of education in Estonia. First, the conceptualisation, model and dimensions of learning to learn competence are described and related challenges for teachers are analysed. Second, an overview of Estonian teachers' current practices, beliefs, knowledge, skills and occupational standards relevant to students' learning to learn competence is provided. We discuss how Estonian teacher education policy may enhance or inhibit the work of teachers when supporting students to develop learning to learn competence. Future directions for teacher educators and how to prepare teachers to support the development of students' learning to learn competence are suggested.     

Students' Evaluation of Teachers and Instructional Quality--Analysis of Relevant Factors Based on Empirical Evaluation Research

This paper explores the factors that determine the student evaluation of teachers. Unlike many previous studies, the effect of potential biases on global ratings is examined in the context of teaching behaviour (that should in fact--in contrast to the potential biases--have an influence on global ratings). Our research takes into account that biases like the students' interest in the subject or their liking for the teacher may be a result of good teaching behaviour and may not be considered a mere bias of student ratings. Furthermore, it also concentrates on the students' attitudes towards evaluating their teachers. The empirical results are based on qualitative interviews with 40 students at Austrian commercial colleges and on a quantitative survey of 2,121 students who were asked to evaluate their Accounting teachers. Structural equation models show that the students' global ratings of teachers mainly depend on their teaching behaviour. However, global ratings are also affected by the students' attitudes towards evaluating their teachers, as well as by the students' liking for their teacher and their interest in the subject of Accounting.     

Higher education in recessionary times: a UK colloquium

Reflective practice in practice settings can enhance practice knowledge, self-assessment and lifelong learning, develop future practice capability and professional identity, and critically appraise practice traditions rather than reproduce them. The inherent power imbalance between student and educator runs the risk for the reflective practice potential not being realised. This study explored final year physiotherapy students' perceptions of clinical educators as teachers of reflection and what role students assigned themselves in learning reflective practice. We found that only assertive students enforced reflection. Others waited for their educators to guide them and some were openly discouraged to reflect. As long as educators neglect the opportunity to deeply explore reflective practice moments with students, opportunities for students to develop autonomy and responsibility may continue to be missed or, at worst, inappropriately developed. Key dilemmas of teaching reflective practice are discussed including its implicit and tacit nature and non-conducive work environments.     

Children's Constructions of Knowledge for Fraction Division After Solving Realistic Problems

Abstract

The authors examined the thinking of children who had the opportunity to construct personal knowledge about division of fractions. The authors based this study on a teaching experiment design and used relevant contexts/situations to foster students' development of knowledge. Participants were a group of mixed-ability, 5th-grade mathematics students. They used pictures, symbols, and words to resolve situations and communicate their solutions. The authors analyzed the solutions to describe the students' constructions of division-of-fractions concepts and procedures. All strategies that the students used represented some manifestation of conceptual knowledge about addition and subtraction of fractions and a definition of division. Some students developed formal symbolic procedures, and others developed pictorial procedures; none invented an invert-and-multiply procedure. Through the window of constructivism, this study allowed the authors to glimpse children's constructions of knowledge and provided alternatives to the traditional view of the expected procedure (invert and multiply) that children should learn for division of fractions.     

Gender Inequality in Biology Classes in China and Its Effects on Students' Short-Term Outcomes

This study investigated gender inequality in biology lessons and analysed the effects of the observed inequality on students' short-term knowledge achievement, situational interest and students' evaluation of teaching (SET). Twenty-two biology teachers and 803 7th-grade students from rural and urban classrooms in China participated in the study. Each teacher was videotaped for 1 lesson on the topic blood and circulatory system. Before and after the lessons, the students completed tests and questionnaires. Chi-square analysis was conducted to compare the boys' and girls' participation rates of answering teachers' questions in the lessons. The findings revealed that in the urban classrooms the boys had a significantly higher rate of participation than did the girls, and hence also a higher situational interest. However, no such gender inequity was found among the rural students. The study also revealed that urban students answered more complicated questions compared with the rural students in general. The findings of this study suggest that the teachers should try to balance boys' and girls' participation and involve more students in answering questions in their lessons. The study also raises questions about long-term effects of students' participation in answering teachers' questions on their outcomes-knowledge achievement, situational interest and SET.     

Applying web-based co-regulated learning to develop students' learning and involvement in a blended computing course

This research investigated, via quasi-experiments, the effects of web-based co-regulated learning (CRL) on developing students' computing skills. Two classes of 68 undergraduates in a one-semester course titled “Applied Information Technology: Data Processing” were chosen for this research. The first class (CRL group, n = 38) received the intervention of web-based CRL teaching methods, while the second one (control group, n = 30) received a traditional teaching method for computing education. The results in this study show that students who received the web-based CRL attained significantly better computing skills than those who received the traditional teaching method. This study provides a design and illustration of web-based CRL for teachers, educators, and schools which place importance on improving students' computing skills and pay attention to development of online courses.     

‘Do You Have to Pack?’—Preparing For Culturally Relevant Science Teaching in the Caribbean

This paper reports on the attempts by some Caribbean science teachers to make links between their students' everyday lives and school science in their planning for teaching. It describes how these teachers drew on their exposure to a university graduate course on science education and culture in seeking to access the background cultural knowledge of their students and to incorporate this knowledge in their plans for teaching science. The paper critically examines the experiences of these teachers and highlights both the rewards and challenges that ensued as these teachers prepared for culturally relevant science teaching     

The Application of Theories of Children to Disciplinary Practice

Shortages of middle-level teacher candidates may cause teacher educators to recruit candidates by focusing on what attracts and discourages candidates about teaching at the middle level. The authors used a survey approach (n = 110) to investigate why preservice middle school and high school teachers and in-service middle school teachers chose the middle grades. The results included ten common reasons that the respondents favored the middle grades and ten major concerns about this level. Three attractions to the middle grades—student age, content level, and employment market—and common beliefs about positive teacher-student relationships and students' maturity may guide teacher educators in their efforts to increase middle grades program enrollment.     

教师生涯五十年：自述与反思

教师要通过自己好的教学过程引起和培养学生的学习兴趣,而不是挫伤它。教师不仅是给学生传授知识,教师整个工作的目的是培养各方面都健全发展的人才。学生犯了错误要抱着宽容、理解的态度,要给以改正的机会,最好是引导其自觉改正。作为一名教师,应该专心敬业,老师的行为一定程度上会影响到学生将来的工作态度。而作为高校教师,要搞好教学必须身体力行,在科研上不断前进。这对学生也是一种示范,一种无言的教育。     

A three‐year prospective longitudinal cohort study of medical students' attitudes toward anatomy teaching and their career aspirations

Today's medical students are faced with numerous learning needs. Continuously developing curricula have reduced time for basic science subjects such as anatomy. This study aimed to determine the students' views on the relevance of anatomy teaching, anatomical knowledge, and the effect these have on their career choices. A Likert scale questionnaire was distributed to second year medical students [response rate 91% (n = 292/320)]. The same questionnaire was subsequently distributed to the cohort three years later when they were final year students [response rate 37% (n = 146/392)]. Students in both the cohorts of study agreed strongly that clinically correlated anatomical teaching was relevant to clinical practice (92% and 86% of second and final year respondents, respectively) and helped them during their clinical placements (73% and 92%, respectively). Only 28% of the second year and 31% of the final year students agreed that their anatomy teaching prepared them to interpret clinical images (P = 0.269). Only 14% of the final year students felt confident in their knowledge of anatomy. Of the final year students, 30% felt that they had enough opportunity to scrub in the operating room. Nearly half of those students who would consider surgery as a career (19%) think that they will eventually become surgeons (11%). This data suggests that modern anatomy curriculum should focus on clinical correlations and clinical image interpretation. Students would value more opportunities to participate in surgeries. Vertical integration of anatomy teaching throughout the full medical course may be useful. Anat Sci Educ. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Surfing the waves of learning: enacting a Semantics analysis of teaching in a first-year Law course

Students’ ability to build knowledge, and transfer it within and between contexts is crucial to cumulative learning and to academic success. This has long been a concern of higher education research and practice. A central part of this concern for educators is creating the conditions that enable their students' deep learning, as this is an area of significant struggle for many students. Legitimation Code Theory, in particular the dimension of Semantics, is proving useful in examining the kinds of conditions that may be necessary for students to build disciplinary knowledge cumulatively over time. Using illustrative data from one case study, this paper suggests that the conceptual tools offered by Semantics can provide academic lecturers and academic development staff with a set of conceptual and analytical tools which can enable them to ‘see’ and understand the ways in which knowledge can be cumulatively acquired and used, as well as the possible gaps between what they are teaching and what their students may be learning. The hope is that these new insights will provide new directions for change in teaching and learning where these may be needed.     

Connections and critique: Feminist pedagogy and science teacher education

In this article, we authors and feminist science and teacher educators share assignments we developed and used in our undergraduate and graduate teacher education classes. We designed these varied assignments to help students feel comfortable with science, to begin to understand and critique the many ways science has been narrowly and powerfully shaped and has marginalized significant groups of individuals, and to begin to deconstruct scientific knowledge and construct alternative views of science and science education that are gender and culture sensitive. We also challenged them to use what they were learning to develop pedagogical strategies that would be inviting to their own students. The focus of the article is our students' reactions to these assignments and how these reactions—both inviting and resisting—informed us about their notions of science, of teaching, of themselves as learners, and of the social context in which they would teach. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 897–918, 1998.     

Fostering Second Graders' Scientific Explanations: A Beginning Elementary Teacher's Knowledge,Beliefs, and Practice

Teaching science as explanation is fundamental to reform efforts but is challenging for teachers—especially new elementary teachers, for whom the complexities of teaching are compounded by high demands and little classroom experience. Despite these challenges, few studies have characterized the knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices that support or hinder teachers from engaging their students in building explanations. To address this gap, this study describes the understandings, purposes, goals, practices, and struggles of one third-year elementary teacher with regard to fostering students' explanation construction. Analyses showed that the teacher had multiple understandings of scientific explanations, believed that fostering students' explanations was important for both teachers and students, and enacted instructional practices that provided opportunities for students to develop explanations. However, she did not consistently take up explanation as a goal in her practice, in part because she did not see explanation construction as a strategy for facilitating the development of students' content knowledge or as an educational goal in its own right. These findings inform the field's understanding of teacher knowledge and practice with regard to one crucial scientific practice and have implications for research on teachers and inquiry-oriented science teaching, science teacher education, and curriculum materials development.