Group interactions in science practical work

This study explored the interactions of a highly motivated group of students doing traditional practical work in science. Interest focussed on the social construction of understanding and how this could be described. Despite considerable collaboration in constructing an understanding of the task the students rarely focussed on the concepts the practical work was intended to illustrate. Collaboration was described in terms of social behaviours and discourse moves which supported the use of cognitive strategies. Specializations: science practical work, collaborative group work, role of language. Specializations: science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments, science reasoning.     

The assessment of practical work in school science

In this paper we provide an overview of the literature on understandings of drop out/opt out from science, technology and mathematics (STM) higher education programmes. After outlining the literature on students leaving higher education programmes in general, we then explore the research on drop out/opt out from STM programmes in particular, with an emphasis on research since 2000. We show that most of the research focuses on overcoming deficits in students' prior knowledge, but that a more specific focus on identities as an analytical framework for understanding young people leaving STM higher education programmes is also emerging. We show that it is important to shift from considering drop out as an individual problem for the student to regard it as a feature of the relationship between students and their study programmes. In the same way, measures to increase retention rates must shift from focusing on individual student adaptation to studies addressing institutional change. However, this change is difficult since it is entwined with fundamental conceptions of science and teaching.     

Assessment during project work

Assessment can be conducted in various ways in school, and has also different purposes. In this paper the focus is on pupil assessment during project work. The article touches on the aim of assessment that has ranking and certificating purposes, but its main focus is on assessment as a learning device. Dialogues from the classroom are used as illustrations of authentic assessment that takes place during the work processes. These dialogues show that assessment is conducted by the teacher, by the pupils of each other and the pupils of themselves. The paper ends with a discussion bringing the assessment discussion further by focusing on criteria and goals as important ingredients in the assessment processes.     

The effect of practical work on students' understanding of combustion

This paper describes a study which investigated 14 and 15 year old students' understanding of combustion in both England and Spain, and explores the effect of practical laboratory experience on students' understanding. The teaching and learning styles used with the students in the study were explored using questionnaires and interviews. The students' understanding of combustion was explored using a questionnaire. The responses of English and Spanish students are significantly different. The quality of the responses is explored in terms of the awareness of students of the involvement of gases in combustion, and it appears, however, that the more extensive use of practical work in English schools has had only a marginal effect on their understanding of combustion.     

Contemporary approaches to learning science: technologically-mediated practical work

This paper describes the current state of science education in Arab states and anticipates some of the challenges faced by those states as they reform their science education. After discussing problems of illiteracy, access and quality we provide contextual information about the structure of the educational systems and describe recent efforts to reform them. We focus on issues pertaining to science curriculum and textbooks, language, religion, student learning in science, science teacher education and science education research and summarise the challenges and opportunities for research faced in each area. We conclude the paper by proposing a set of policy and research recommendations that could aid in the development of lasting solutions for recurring problems.     

以典型工作任务引导高职实训改革

高职药学教育主要是培养实践动手能力与理论知识相结合的应用型技术人才。目前的高职药学实训模式忽视了专业的系统思维,使科研与实际生产发生了脱节,约束了学生的自主性与创造性。以＂校企合作,工学结合＂为原则,对高职药学的实训进行探索性的改革研究,效果良好。     

班主任工作量化考核的实践研究

温州财税希望小学从1998年2月起进行了“班主任量化考核方法的实验”，制定和 完 善了《班主任学期量化考核评价细则》，把纷乱复杂的班主任工作行为转换为简单有序的 分数列，力求做到评价的公正、规范、科学、民主，提高班主任评价和管理的水平。     

高校学生工作在创新人才培养中的实践对策研究

随着国际竞争日益激烈、经济全球化日益深化和国家对创新人才培养要求的紧迫,高校学生工作面临巨大挑战。针对高校学生工作在创新人才培养中存在的信仰引导、精神培养、行为示范、环境熏陶等功能发挥不够充分的现状,提出了树立着眼于促进学生全面发展、激发创新潜能的工作理念,采取着力于帮助学生适性发展的工作方法,构建着力于信仰与精神引导、咨询与服务拓展的内容体系,建立着力于鼓励学生创新的工作机制,打造具有职业化、专业化水平的学生工作队伍;营造崇尚科学与学术自由、注重实践与勇于创新的校园文化环境等有利于创新人才培养的高校学生工作实践对策。     

Using digital representations of practical production work for summative assessment

This paper presents the findings of the first phase of a three-year study investigating the efficacy of the digitisation of creative practical work as digital portfolios for the purposes of high-stakes summative assessment. At the same time the paired comparisons method of scoring was tried as an alternative to analytical rubric-based marking because we believed that it was likely that a more holistic approach to scoring would be more appropriate. Researchers created digital representations of the practical submissions of 75 Visual Arts and 82 Design students graduating from secondary school in Western Australia. These digital portfolios were scored using the two methods, with the scores compared to those officially awarded to the physical forms. It was concluded that the digital representations of the Visual Arts submissions had adequate fidelity for the purpose of awarding high-stakes scores particularly using the paired comparisons method. However, the Visual Arts teachers and students were opposed to digitisation. For the Design portfolios teachers and students were supportive of digital submission, but the structure of the portfolios reduced the reliability and validity of scores, particularly from analytical marking.     

Epistemology,practical work and Academic skills in science education

This article discusses the inherent flaws in considering and using the epistemology of the natural sciences as equivalent to a pedagogic basis for teaching and learning in the natural sciences. It begins with a discussion of the difference between practising science and learning to practice science. It follows with a discussion and refutation of three commonly held motives for using practicals in science education. It concludes with the presentation of three new, better motives for their use.     

Producing the evidence: Science teachers' initiations into practical work

The quantity, quality and fitness for purpose of much school practical work has come in for some criticism. This paper reports on questionnaire and interview studies with trainee science teachers. The study examined the reasons and justifications that teachers give for the way in which they conduct practical work. The particular focus is on counter-normative behaviour and what the behaviour indicates about the status of empirical work and the purpose of evidence in science classrooms. The questionnaire was completed by 40 trainee teachers. The analysis of the questionnaire determined the number of teachers who had produced results fraudulently either on their own initiative or had been initiated into it by experienced teachers and/or laboratory technicians. From the questionnaire we were able to select a small sample who we interviewed in order to unpack further the questionnaire responses. In discussing our data, a case for the re-evaluation of practical work in science education will be made and it will be argued that science teacher behaviour is best understood anthropologically. Possible implications for mentoring and school based training are mentioned briefly.     

Assessment of performance in practical science and pupil attributes

Performance assessment in the UK science General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) currently relies on pupil reports of their investigations. These are widely criticized. Written tests of procedural understanding could be used as an alternative, but what exactly do they measure? This paper describes small‐scale research in which there was an analysis of assessments of pupils' GCSE scores of substantive ideas, their coursework performance assessment and a novel written evidence test. Results from these different assessments were compared with each other and with baseline data on CAT scores and pupils' attributes. Significant predictors of performance on each of these assessments were determined. The data reported shows that a choice could be made between practical coursework that links to ‘behaviour’ and written evidence tests which link, albeit less strongly, with ‘quickness’. There would be differential effects on pupils.     

Assessment by project work in snow engineering

Assessment in the form of a large project and field- and laboratory work was shown to be successful when applied to a course in snow engineering for university students with various backgrounds. The course was interdisciplinary, with teachers representing three different engineering disciplines. The project work was assessed by a report, a short oral presentation and an optional presentation such as a home page, a poster or a physical model. The students experienced that they had learned more with this assessment strategy than from courses with a final written exam. Peer evaluation of the relative contributions to the project work was applied and was appreciated by the students. The experiences of practical engineering tasks during the project work were also appreciated.     

基于临床工作过程设计的助产学实训教学模式

随着国家二孩政策的全面放开,高龄产妇随之增多,这对助产士提出了更高要求。助产士不但要有扎实的理论知识,还要有熟练的助产技能。在助产学实训教学过程中,以临床工作过程为主线,设计实训模块,在此基础上引入BOPPPS教学模式,并结合客观结构化临床考核模式,可使学校教学更好对接临床工作,提高助产士的临床助产技能。     

高中生物学奥赛实验训练浅谈

本文分析了我国选手在国际生物学奥赛中的成绩,特别是实验成绩,讨论了实验能力在竞赛中的重要性,并提出了奥赛实验训练的策略。     

Media rich, resource poor: practical work in an impractical environment

Film and media courses appear well placed to exploit technology convergence in exposing students both to practical skills and to theoretical concepts. For the University of Cape Town's (UCT) large film and media studies courses, it is impractical simply to use the technology of professionals as this would typically be too expensive to purchase and time‐consuming to run. Our approach has been to develop activities that can run with large classes in generic computer laboratories and which simulate environments and tools of the real world. Two illustrative examples, emphasising writing skills in context, involve the production of a TV news story and the development of a proposal for an educational soap opera. Using these, we reflect on our experience of integrating practical skills into the curriculum of a traditional academic institution, where these skills have a lower status and must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate changes in the higher‐status academic components. This suggests that such flexibility has to be part of the design of practical interventions and that they should additionally aim to provide a challenge to some of the more theoretical aspects of these courses. While developing one's own interventions allows for some of this flexibility to be incorporated into the design, it remains difficult for academic departments to adopt these solutions as their own, thus requiring continued involvement of the original developers to adapt to changes.