‘Experiencing the Theory': Constructivism in a pre-service teacher preparation program

In two Bachelor of Education courses, students experienced social constructivist principles for teaching Elementary Language Arts. In the first course, they were introduced to the theory upon which curricula, methods, and strategies are based. Implications for instruction were explored through discussion of readings and participation in child-centered activities, later examined from the points of view of the learner and of the theory. In the second course, the seminar group pursued advanced questions about social constructivist theories, methods, and strategies. Students kept informal written responses to readings; shared reactions, ideas, and questions; suggested readings and approaches; and summarized their understanding in final papers. Students evaluated both experiences as being exceptionally useful to their own understanding of instruction. Four pedagogical points are worth consideration. First, despite differences in their undergraduate disciplines, all students demonstrated that they could contribute to their peers' construction of knowledge or meaning making of the concepts and theories examined. Second, the sequence of the two courses seemed to be important for establishing a base of understanding and inquiry for the seminar group. Third, students used metacognitive analysis of their experiences in order to examine their own learning, to investigate learning in general, and to inquire into the use of this understanding in their teaching. Fourth, students' excitement, as expressed in their evaluations, suggests that they began to construct a notion of what a teacher can be, of the obligation that a teacher has to continuous professional development, and of the need to inquire about their own practice.     

The effect of the biology critical thinking project on the development of critical thinking

This article describes the Biology Critical Thinking (BCT) project in which carefully designed activities for developing specific critical thinking skills are incorporated into the biology curriculum. The objectives were to find out whether the BCT project contributes to the development of critical thinking skills in various biological and nonbiological topics and how it affects students' biological knowledge and classroom learning environment. The study consisted of 678 seventh graders who were assigned randomly into two groups that studied the same seventh-grade biology textbook. Only one group, the experimental, completed the BCT activities. The results indicate that the students in the experimental group improved their critical thinking skills compared to their own initial level and compared to their counterparts in the control group. Improved critical thinking skills were observed in a new biological context and nonbiological everyday topics, suggesting generalization of thinking skills across domains. The experimental students scored significantly higher than the control on a knowledge test, suggesting that “knowledge of facts” as one educational goal and “learning to think” as another, need not conflict, but rather can interact with each other. Finally, the results show that BCT involvement decreased the frequency of teacher-centered teaching and enhanced student-centered, more active learning.     

A study of practical‐moral knowledge in science teaching: Case studies in physical science classrooms

This study further extends a conceptual framework that explores science teaching as a “practice” not reducible to the application of formal knowledge, but as informed by teachers' practical‐moral knowledge. A hermeneutic model was developed to examine practical‐moral knowledge indirectly by investigating teachers' commitments, interpretations, actions, and dialectic interactions between them. The study also aimed to analyze teachers' actions in terms of their interpretations and commitments as they realize “internal goods” of their practice. Ethnographic case studies of three science teachers were conducted through classroom observation, in‐depth interviews and dialogues, and artifact analysis. A commitment of preparing students for national exams was common to the three teachers but was manifested differently in classroom practices. This commitment originated from interpretations about the duty of “good” teachers not letting students and schools down. Other emergent commitments were commitments: to conceptual understandings, to “challenge” learners, and to social modeling. We present each with associated interpretations and actions. The concepts of practical wisdom (phronesis) and gap closing are used to characterize teachers' practical knowledge and its development respectively. Implications for teacher education are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 929–951, 2010     

Four women's stories of “failure” as beginning teachers

This study focused on the “failure” experienced by four novice teachers. While only one actually “failed” student teaching, each perceived herself as a “failure” in the classroom, and all four chose alternate careers upon completion of the assignment. Drawing on literature identifying patterns in women's thinking and modes of learning, we examined the difficulties these women encountered, focusing on their own perceptions of those problems. We identify alternative patterns of supervision which might have allowed these capable women to do more than “survive” their initial teaching experiences, and we argue for more gender-balanced conceptions of teachers' growth and development.     

Preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching using mobile devices and the quality of technology integration in lesson plans

This study explored the relationships among preservice teachers' conceptions of teaching using mobile devices and the quality of technology integration in lesson plans. A total of 47 preservice teachers in Taiwan who had experienced designing their own lesson plans and teaching materials (ie, eBooks and applications) for teaching using mobile devices (ie, smart phones and tablet PCs) participated in this study. The results showed that four qualitatively different conceptions of teaching using mobile devices were identified, namely “technology support,” “knowledge transmission,” “learning facilitation,” and “supporting students to learn.” This study also found that the teachers who had more constructivist perceptions of teaching using mobile devices, such as facilitating students' understanding in a convenient way or supporting student learning in a more active way, appeared to attain better quality technology integration in their lesson plans than those teachers with traditional conceptions.     

Evaluations and the Forgetfulness of Pedagogical Relations: Remarks on Educational Authority

In this essay, Christiane Thompson addresses the question of evaluative practices, particularly student evaluation of teaching (SET), and their effects with respect to pedagogical relations in the university setting. In the first part of the essay, Thompson draws on Michel Foucault's analysis of power to show how university teaching has come to be defined according to notions of obligation, accountability, and assurance. The forgetfulness of pedagogical relations that results from the increasing use of SET prompts Thompson to rethink the significance of pedagogical relations in the second part of the essay. Referring to the notion of “educational authority” and Foucault's framework of power, Thompson argues that education is about the continuous re‐institution of pedagogical relation to the other. In the final section, Thompson reflects upon the professor's “authority” in terms of constituting a “community of inquiry”: specifically, the seminar is interpreted as a pedagogical setting that implies a different “being‐with” than SET suggests. She concludes by considering what possibilities and limitations the seminar setting offers and how we can discuss this issue (by means of evaluative practice).     

Challenges and Changes: Developing Teachers’ and Initial Teacher Education Students’ Understandings of the Nature of Science

Teachers need an understanding of the nature of science (NOS) to enable them to incorporate NOS into their teaching of science. The current study examines the usefulness of a strategy for challenging or changing teachers’ understandings of NOS. The teachers who participated in this study were 10 initial teacher education chemistry students and six experienced teachers from secondary and primary schools who were introduced to an explicit and reflective activity, a dramatic reading about a historical scientific development. Concept maps were used before and after the activity to assess teachers’ knowledge of NOS. The participants also took part in a focus group interview to establish whether they perceived the activity as useful in developing their own understanding of NOS. Initial analysis led us to ask another group, comprising seven initial teacher education chemistry students, to take part in a modified study. These participants not only completed the same tasks as the previous participants but also completed a written reflection commenting on whether the activity and focus group discussion enhanced their understanding of NOS. Both Lederman et al.’s (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(6), 497–521, 2002) concepts of NOS and notions of “naive” and “informed” understandings of NOS and Hay’s (Studies in Higher Education, 32(1), 39–57, 2007) notions of “surface” and “deep” learning were used as frameworks to examine the participants’ specific understandings of NOS and the depth of their learning. The ways in which participants’ understandings of NOS were broadened or changed by taking part in the dramatic reading are presented. The impact of the data-gathering tools on the participants’ professional learning is also discussed.     

How African American Parents Understand Their and Teachers' Roles in Children's Schooling and What this Means for Preparing Preservice Teachers

Preservice teachers are socialized by their own raced, classed, and gendered experiences to expect “caring parents” to behave and contribute in certain ways to their children's schooling. Preservice teachers who come from widely divergent backgrounds from the communities in which they serve can sometimes be skeptical of parents who are not involved in children's schooling in ways that are familiar from their own upbringing. Moreover, much of the existing scholarship on parent involvement and the transition to school takes a top-down approach that discounts the important knowledge parents bring to the table. This is a study of African American parents of young children who were preparing to transition to kindergarten or first grade that proposes an alternate conversation about what we can learn from parents when we examine their ways of framing and enacting “involvement” in their children's school lives. African American parents and caregivers (N?=?25) participated in qualitative interviews. Thematic analyses of the interviews revealed that participants constructed preparation for the transition to school broadly, as preparation for the “real world.” I will discuss the implications of the study for teaching, teacher education, and future research, so that preservice teachers and teacher educators can begin to build a greater imagination for parent involvement.     

Consultants’ Learning within Academia: Five devices for the design of university-based learning opportunities for management consultants

This paper explores the ways in which it is possible for universities to design learning opportunities for management consultants. Drawing on a successful practice in The Netherlands and using the literature on learning, development of competencies and career theory, it investigates selected aspects of this particular “market”, comparing the conventions governing the practice of consultants with those of academic practice. Its subsequent argument for the successful design of learning opportunities for professional consultants is organised around a discussion of five learning “devices”: (1) a self-reflective design practice; (2) a design process operating along three dimensions - the acquisition of knowledge and/or techniques, development of professional competencies, and personal and professional transitions; (3) treating knowledge as a process rather than a product; (4) building on learning experiences in work and on anticipated performances; and (5) a prohibition of “ego” in consultants' learning. The paper concludes with some reflections on the use of these devices elsewhere.     

God–Mother–Baby: What Children Think They Know

This study tested one hundred and nine 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children on a knowledge‐ignorance task about knowledge in humans (mother, baby) and God. In their responses, participants not reliably grasping that seeing leads to knowing in humans (pre‐representational) were significantly influenced by own knowledge and marginally by question format. Moreover, knowledge was attributed significantly more often to mother than baby and explained by agent‐based characteristics. Of participants mastering the task for humans (representational), God was largely conceived as ignorant “man in the sky” by younger and increasingly as “supernatural agent in the sky” by older children. Evidence for egocentrism and for anthropomorphizing God lends support to an anthropomorphism hypothesis. First‐time evidence for an agent‐based conception of others' knowledge in pre‐representational children is presented.     

“Equal Time” and “Equal Voice”

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines the development, implementation, and qualitative and quantitative evaluations of a foundation research course structured to give “equal time” and “equal voice” to both qualitative and quantitative research content. Assessment of this integrative approach suggested that students' gain in qualitative research knowledge was strongly correlated with their gain in quantitative research knowledge (r = .653, p > .0005), and some students believed “I am better able to evaluate my practice” as a result of taking this course.     

Learning to teach science for all in the elementary grades: What do preservice teachers bring?

Implicit in the goal of recent reforms is the question: What does it mean to prepare teachers to teach “science for all”? Through a teacher research study, I have encountered characteristics that may assist prospective elementary teachers in developing effective, inclusive science instruction. I describe these strengths, link them to requirements for teaching, and suggest how science teacher educators might draw on the strengths of their own students to support teaching practices aimed at universal scientific literacy. My conceptual framework is constructed from scholarship concerning best practice in elementary science education, as well as that which describes the dispositions of successful teachers of diverse learners. This study is based on a model of teacher research framed by the concept of “research as praxis” and phenomenological research methodology. The findings describe the research participants' strengths thematically as propensity for inquiry, attention to children, and awareness of school/society relationships. I view these as potentially productive aspects of knowledge and dispositions about science and about children that I could draw on to further students' development as elementary science teachers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 845–869, 2002     

Researcher as Teacher: Lessons Modeled by a Well-Remembered Scholar

While teacher educators may encourage their students to reflect deeply on their teaching, the teachers of teachers rarely seem to examine their own teaching practices. Yet a study of one's own practice can generate profound insights into one's own teaching, can model good teaching to our students, and can serve as the foundation for research about teaching. One teacher–researcher–scholar, Jeff Northfield, developed a powerful set of insights into the value of exploring personal practice while contributing to our general knowledge of teaching. Within the context of the current paradigm wars concerning “best” research in the reform of teaching and teacher education, this paper demonstrates that the work of researchers like Northfield stands as a valuable exemplar of good research of teaching. The paper also explores critical points from Northfield's work that can guide future research into our own teaching.     

Speculations on qualities of difficult knowledge in teaching and learning: an experiment in psychoanalytic research

This paper explores two questions in relation to the authors' project, “Difficult Knowledge in Teaching and Learning: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry.” They describe how their original question, “What makes knowledge difficult?,” transformed into “What is it to represent ‘difficult’ knowledge?” They speculate on the resonances that this crisis of representation leaves in narration by way of three psychoanalytic concepts: deferred action, transference, and symbolization. They consider constructions of difficulties in teaching and learning from the vantage of psychoanalytic writing and their own attempts to interview university teachers and students on how they think about difficult knowledge. They offer a conceptual archeology of their project that highlights the shift from the first to the second research question, some clinical discussion on the difficulties of narrating teaching and learning, some constructions of difficulty proposed in their research protocol, and constructions of difficulty in their interviews. They conclude by discussing how the very design of their research enacted the crisis of representing teaching and learning.     

“I am thinking that speech is asinine”: Narrating Complexities and Rethinking the Notion of “Independence” in Communication

This article presents a narrative accounting of a critical interpretivist research study that sought to document the emergence of useful speech in participants who had previously been described as largely nonverbal. The purpose of this piece is to narrate this inquiry process through examination not only of our participants' own accounts of their experiences but also through critical examination of the ways in which we as researchers solicit and respond to those accounts. Our analytic gaze, therefore, focuses on the dialectic process through which we interactively co-construct concepts related to disability in our participants' experiences, alternating between narrating our own experience of this process as researchers and narrating our participants' accounts of their own experiences with this interpretive process. Discussion focuses on critique of the cultural value accorded to the notions of “independence” and “normalcy,” and on the participants' demonstration of their own agency in the complex, fluid, and constant process of managing and constructing, in concert with those around them, and often in the face of significant resistance to the process, their own positive and valued identities as competent communicators.     

Making sense of genetics: Students' knowledge use during problem solving in a high school genetics class

Interest in including ideas about the nature of science in instruction and research has led to the realization that, in addition to developing courses which offer students experience with science practice, it is important to understand the ways in which students learn and use science knowledge within such courses. The study reported here is based on a particular view of the nature of scientific practice: Science is collaborative; scientists use knowledge in the construction of new knowledge; and scientists' understanding of problems and problem-solving strategies change during knowledge construction. Given this perspective, the study examines the ways in which students in an innovative high school genetics class collaborate to construct knowledge as they develop genetics models. In this classroom, students use three kinds of knowledge: knowledge of genetics, permitting them to recognize anomalous aspects of new data and providing a template from which to develop new models; knowledge of the process of model revision, helping them make decisions about how to develop new models; and knowledge of their own problem-solving strategies, allowing them to “keep track” of what they have done, as well as make connections between the development of new models and their knowledge of genetics. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Striving for a better world: Lessons from Freire in Grenada,Jamaica and Australia

The author of this paper considers the influence of Paulo Freire’s pedagogical philosophy on educational practice in three different geographical/political settings. She begins with reflections on her experience as a facilitator at Freire’s seminar, held in Grenada in 1980 for teachers and community educators, on the integration of work and study. This case demonstrates how Freire’s method of dialogic education achieved outcomes for the group of thoughtful collaboration leading to conscientisation in terms of deep reflection on their lives as teachers in Grenada and strategies for decolonising education and society. The second case under consideration is the arts-based pedagogy shaping the work of the Area Youth Foundation (AYF) in Kingston, Jamaica. Young participants, many of them from tough socio-economic backgrounds, are empowered by learning how to articulate their own experiences and relate these to social change. They express this conscientisation by creating stage performances, murals, photo-novella booklets and other artistic products. The third case study describes and evaluates the Honey Ant Reader project in Alice Springs, Australia. Aboriginal children, as well as the adults in their community, learn to read in their local language as well as Australian Standard English, using booklets created from Indigenous stories told by community Elders, featuring local customs and traditions. The author analyses how the “Freirean” pedagogy in all three cases exemplifies the process of encouraging the creation of knowledge for progressive social change, rather than teaching preconceived knowledge. This supports her discussion of the extent to which this is authentic to the spirit of the scholar/teacher Paulo Freire, who maintained that in our search for a better society, the world has to be made and remade. Her second, related aim is to raise questions about how education aligned with Freirean pedagogy can contribute to moving social change from the culture circle to the public sphere.     

The acquisition of biological knowledge during childhood: Cognitive conflict or tabula rasa?

Clinical interviews were conducted with three elementary school children, who varied in age but not in family or school environment, to determine the extent to which they held naive misconceptions about important biological topics and to determine agewise trends in the development of biological knowledge. Does early biological knowledge acquisition follow a pattern of spontaneous naive theory construction and cognitive conflict or does it follow a pattern of gradual accretion to an initially blank slate? Contrary to findings in the physical sciences, little evidence was found for biological “misconceptions” as knowledge acquisition appeared to more directly follow the gradual accretion hypothesis with the primary source of that knowledge adult authority rather than personal experience. However, “conceptual change teaching” is still advocated due to its ability to provoke students to consider and test alternative conceptions (even if they are not their own) as a means of encouraging the development of important general reasoning patterns utilized in the testing of causal hypotheses.     

BUILDING BRIDGES AND TEARING DOWN WALLS: CONSTRUCTING AN EARLY CHILDHOOD CAREER LADDER THROUGH UNIVERSITY‐HEAD START COLLABORATION

The purpose of this study was to explore child care teachers' perceptions of their initial preservice and in-service training experiences. Eighteen child care teachers working in six for-profit centers were interviewed. Based on the participants' responses, the findings are organized in two themes. First, because many of them entered the field without significant training and education, received little or no preservice training, and then participated in minimal amounts of in-service training, these teachers described their experience as being “thrown into the classroom.” Second, due to this lack of training, the teachers discussed the ways in which they were “figuring out how to do it” in terms of using their own natural abilities, learning by experience, and learning from other teachers by watching and asking questions. The findings of this study have implications for the field in terms of designing and structuring professional development opportunities for child care teachers to better meet their needs within particular contexts.