Distributed Scaffolding in a Service-Learning Course

This article argues that the instructional scaffolding metaphor may be reconceived as distributed scaffolding when multiple means of influence are provided in a service-learning setting. In the service-learning course described here, the professor's role is largely as designer of activity settings for preservice teacher candidates, through which the students construct their own conceptions of teaching culturally diverse populations. The course involves a set of interrelated settings: a tutoring experience at the city's alternative high school; the reading of books from a menu of texts that cover a range of diversity topics; the discussion of these books in book club meetings independent of the professor's direct influence; and the whole-class discussion of these texts, led by each student book club. The distributed nature of the course scaffolding is illustrated with an excerpt from one book club's discussion.     

Creating Respectful Classroom Environments

Creating respectful classroom environments Respect is a critical variable in education. It is critical to each individual child in the classroom environment as well as to the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom. Children learn by example. Where do they get their examples? This article explores the parameters of teaching and encouraging respect in classrooms for young children. Emphasis is placed on the creation of respectful classroom environments taught by teachers who have themselves been prepared to nurture this kind of environment.     

Synergy: A Complement to Emerging Patterns of Distributed Scaffolding

In this article, I examine distributed scaffolding, an emerging approach in the design of supports for rich learning environments intended to help students develop disciplinary ways of knowing, doing, and communicating. Distributed scaffolding incorporates multiple forms of support that are provided through different means to address the complex and diverse learning needs that arise in such settings. I synthesize research to date to articulate three patterns of distributed scaffolding and the pedagogical considerations that they target. I introduce synergy as a pattern that has not received much attention in the past. Synergy refers to the characteristic that different components of distributed scaffolding, such as software supports and teacher coaching, address the same learning need and interact with each other to produce a robust form of support. I illustrate this pattern through classroom examples and discuss the scaffolding functions that it can fulfill. I conclude with implications for the principled design of distributed scaffolding.     

Changing Classroom Environments in Urban Middle Schools

This study involved three phases. First, we developed and validated the Elementary and Middle School Inventory of Classroom Environments (ICE) for assessing upper primary and middle school (Grades 6–8) students' perceived and preferred classroom environment. Second, typical classroom environments in an urban setting were described based on quantitative and qualitative data, including differences between the perceptions of students of different genders. Finally, teachers' participation in action research techniques, involving the use of feedback on perceived and preferred classroom environment, was evaluated in terms of effectiveness in promoting improvement in classroom environments. The sample consisted of ten middle grade teachers and their 43 classes of students in an urban North Texas school setting. Perceived and preferred forms of the ICE, assessing Cooperation, Teacher Empathy, Involvement and Task Orientation, were administered. Factor and item analyses supported the internal consistency reliability of a four-factor version of the perceived and preferred forms of the ICE for both the individual student and the class mean as the units of analysis. The perceived and preferred environments of different classes are described based on profiles of classroom environment scores. When teachers were selected from the original sample to participate in an attempt to alter their classroom environments, changes in classroom climate occurred, thus supporting the efficacy of the environmental change strategy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Assessment of Chemistry Laboratory Classroom Environments

The Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) is a recently developed classroom environment instrument for assessing students' or teachers' perceptions of their science laboratory classroom environment. This paper describes its development and reports on the validation and application of its modified form, the Chemistry Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI), with a Singapore secondary school sample. The sample consisted of 1 592 final-year secondary school (i.e. tenth grade) chemistry students from 56 intact classes from 28 randomly selected co-educational government secondary schools in Singapore. Various item and factor analyses supported the reliability and validity of the instrument for assessing students' perceptions of their chemistry laboratory environment specifically in Singapore.     

Assessment of Classroom Environments in Reformed Calculus Education

Research was conducted to determine if current reforms in calculus education are more inclusive of students of different genders, personalities, attributional beliefs, mathematical abilities, and computer attitudes. Two types of calculus reform are examined: a computer-assisted, student-centred and inductive reform based on the Calculus and Maple (C&M) package; and a teacher-only, teacher-centred and deductive reform. Both methods emphasise student participation in the learning and employ collaborative-learning groups mixed by ability and the assessed sociometric measures, but not mixed by gender. The classroom environments of the reform classes were assessed qualitatively using free-form surveys, interviews and classroom observations, and assessed quantitatively using the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI). The classroom environment of reform classes was compared qualitatively to the normal lecture environment. Students assessed the classroom environment as being significantly less favourable than preferred, confirming general dissatisfaction with socio-emotional aspects of university classes, even when adopting modern educational reforms. Differences in the actual and preferred classroom environments were observed in all class sub-divisions (i.e. gender, personality) and across all environment scales of the CUCEI. The research illustrates the psychosocial diversity of reforms for university classrooms and the desirability of evaluating such reforms using a learning environment inventory as well as conventional qualitative measures.     

课堂教学：让学生诗意地存在

课堂是学生意义生成的场所。学生在课堂中与教师、文本、环境等共同构成了一种关系存在。但在现实的教育实践中,仍然存在着课堂教学本真意义失却的现象:"科学知识观"贬抑了课堂教学中的人文知识,泛功利化的思想扭曲了学习的外在意义,机械化的教学方法漠视了人的价值,沉重的课业负担使课堂失去了应有的活力。因此,让学生在课堂教学中诗意地存在,就成为教育理论与实践研究者的普遍心向。     

Cognitive Tools for Writing: Scaffolding the Performance of Students through Technology

Abstract. This study entailed the implementation and evaluation of a Web‐based technology designed to support the writing performance of fourth‐ and fifth‐grade students with learning disabilities (LD). The technology, Technology‐Enhanced Learning Environments on the Web (TELE‐Web), was implemented in a resource room setting involving 12 students with LD in the upper elementary grades. To evaluate the effects of the scaffolds on performance, students wrote personal news stories in three conditions: Scaffolded Personal News, Unscaffolded Personal News, and paper and pencil. The results revealed that the scaffolding condition significantly improved writing performance, particularly with respect to students' abilities to produce organized texts.     

Coteaching/Cogenerative Dialoguing: Learning Environments Research as Classroom Praxis

Critical educators have leveled a methodological critique against traditional forms of classroom research because they both objectify teachers and students and lead to results that do not enhance praxis. Over the past decade, we have developed coteaching as a context for learning to teach and supervising teaching, on the one hand and, on the other, as a method for doing research on and evaluating teaching. Coteaching involves an equitable inquiry into teaching and learning processes in which all members (or representatives thereof) of a classroom community participate – including students, teachers, student teachers, researchers, and supervisors. In this article, we articulate coteaching in terms of activity theory and the associated first-person methodology for doing research on learning environments that is relevant to praxis because it constitutes an integral part of praxis. A detailed case study exemplifies coteaching and the associated research on learning environments.     

Classroom Learning Environments and Students' Approaches to Learning

Four hundred and eighty-four students from two metropolitan secondary schools completed the Learning Process Questionnaire, the Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire and the Learner Self Concept scale. Relationships between perceptions of the classroom learning environment, approaches to learning and self concept as a learner were investigated. Gender and level of schooling (junior high versus senior high) differences were examined. Results showed Deep Approaches to learning were significantly related to classroom learning environments which were perceived to be highly personalised and to be encouraging active participation in the learning process and the use of investigative skills in learning activities. High learner self concept was positively associated with Deep Approaches to learning and with classrooms perceived as high in Personalisation. It was negatively associated with Surface Approaches to learning. Differences in perceptions of learning environments and approaches to learning in relation to gender and level of schooling were small. The implications of these findings are discussed and strategies for facilitating Deep Approaches to learning are referred to. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Student Perceptions of Industrial Chemistry Classroom Learning Environments

This article describes a study conducted in Israel which focused on how learning industrial chemistry case studies affects students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment and their interest in chemistry studies. The goal of the study was to determine the effects of industrial case studies on students' perceptions of chemistry in general, and industrial chemistry in particular. Information on students' perceptions was gathered from a learning environment inventory specifically developed for this study. It was observed that industrial chemistry case studies helped in providing students with a relevant picture of chemistry in general and their chemistry studies in particular. It was also found that teachers who had attended an intensive training workshop were the most successful in presenting the relevance of chemistry in the case studies. These teachers also were more successful in raising students' awareness of the social implications of chemistry studies. Furthermore, their students had a better awareness of the contribution made by chemistry studies to their preparation as future citizens and for a possible career in chemistry. These findings have important implications for any decisions about whether to make industrial chemistry case studies obligatory for students who major in chemistry. There are further implications regarding the content and learning strategies to be used for the professional development of science teachers in general and chemistry teachers in particular. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Quantifying Error in Survey Measures of School and Classroom Environments

Developing indicators that reflect important aspects of school and classroom environments has become central in a nationwide effort to develop comprehensive programs that measure teacher quality and effectiveness. Formulating teacher evaluation policy necessitates accurate and reliable methods for measuring these environmental variables. This article investigates different approaches to quantify measurement error in school- and classroom-level indicators constructed from survey data collected at a lower level of aggregation (i.e., teachers or students). Within a generalizability theory framework the article first compares four widely used approaches for accounting for measurement error in school- and classroom-level aggregate indicators. Then, it uses two empirical examples to demonstrate how each of these approaches can lead to different conclusions about the precision of aggregate indicators, and can influence inferences about the relationships between environmental variables and policy-relevant outcomes. Finally, the article discusses the degree to which these commonly used models accurately represent the structure of the data found in common survey administration scenarios.     

Powerful Learning Environments: The Critical Link Between School and Classroom Cultures

Schools serving large populations of students placed at risk have been the focus of reform for over a decade, with the assumption that school reform leads to classroom reform, resulting in improved student achievement. Student achievement data at the school level are typically used to judge the effectiveness of the reform. This practice assumes uniformity of implementation within the school. This study of classrooms within 4 Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) schools operationalizes the ASP principles, values, and concepts of powerful learning at the classroom level. Together, they form what is called a powerful learning environment (PLE). In addition, the study examines the extent to which PLE is implemented similarly in different classrooms and different schools, and analyzes the relation between degree of implementation and differences in student achievement. Data collection involved structured observations in 40 classrooms during English and language arts or mathematics instruction. Analysis of data indicates that more variation in implementation of PLE occurred within schools than between schools. The study also finds a correlation between degree of implementation and higher student achievement.     

基于“支架”视角的英语专业课堂中教师提问的探讨

教师课堂提问在外语课堂教学中起着重要作用,但国内外语教学界的学者们对此问题研究甚少.以社会文化理论中的支架理论为基础,通过对同一位教师教授的两个不同水平的英语专业课堂进行观察、记录、分析与研究,探讨了不同的课堂提问类型和提问策略在不同英语水平的班级上所起到的支架功能,并提出在学生的最近发展区进行课堂提问有利于学生交际能力和思辨能力的发展.     

A Cross-cultural Study of Classroom Learning Environments in Australia and Taiwan

This research is distinctive in that it not only provides an example of one of the few cross-cultural studies in science education, but also it used multiple research methods from different paradigms in exploring classroom learning environments in Taiwan and Australia. This article describes the validation and use of an English and Mandarin version of the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire in junior high school science classes in Australia and Taiwan. When the WIHIC was administered to 1,081 students in 50 classes in Australia and to 1,879 students in 50 classes in Taiwan, data analysis supported the reliability and factorial validity of the questionnaire, and revealed differences between Taiwanese and Australian classrooms. Although the study commenced from a more positivistic framework, favouring a more objectivist view, as the study progressed, it employed an interpretative framework and drew on elements of constructivist and critical theory paradigms. This article outlines the researchers' use of multiple research methods including classroom observations, in-depth interviews and narratives. The themes which emerged from the data gathered using these methods helped to make sense of classroom environments that were created in each country.

     

New Learning Environments and Constructivism: The Students’ Perspective

Research into students’ perceptions of their learning environments reveals the impact of these perceptions on the way students cope with these learning environments. Consequently, students’ perceptions affect the results of their learning. This study aims to investigate whether students in a new learning environment (NLE) perceive it to be more constructivist when compared with the perceptions students have of a conventional lecture-based environment. Using a questionnaire consisting of seven key factors of constructivist learning environments, the results show that students in the NLE perceive it to be more constructivist when compared to the perceptions of students in a conventional lecture-based environment. The difference was statistically significant for four of the seven factors. According to the effect size, as measured by the d-index, the difference in perception between the two groups was greatest for the factor ‘conceptual conflicts and dilemmas’. in final form: 31 May 2005     

试论课堂教学环境及其设计的策略

课堂教学的有效性依赖于一定的教学环境。这种环境主要包括教学物理环境、教学信息环境和教学心理环境。它们通过影响教师和学生的认知活动的广度、深度和对信息加工的水平以及情感体验的积极性，进而影响其教与学的效率。因此，创设有效教学的环境，必须以教学活动中师生认变知和情感活动的需要为基点。不同的教学环境，师生心理活动的内容和活动方式不同，其所依赖的心理背景和空间也有差异。     

巧设课堂提问

课堂提问是教学过程中的重要环节,因此,课堂提问要有目的性、趣味性、针对性和科学性。