Science Materials for Special Needs

Science opportunities for children with special educational needs are often restrictive, sometimes non-existent. Books and teaching programmes designed to meet their needs are still relatively few. A new American approach which not only offers hands-on and problem-solving experience but is also designed for teachers who are not science-trained is arousing interest among British teachers too. Sue Dale Tunnicliffe, team leader of the primary science and technology advisory teachers, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, describes the new materials.     

扩大随班就读规模 提高随班就读质量

改革开放以来,特别是近10年来,我国特殊教育事业得到了很大的发展,仅从学生数量增长角度看便可说明这个问题:截至2002年,全国三类残疾儿童少年在校人数已近40万,比1990年增加了4倍多.残疾儿童少年入学人数猛增,原因固然是多方面的,其中很重要的一点,就是从20世纪80年代末开始在全国范围内大力推进了残疾儿童少年随班就读工作.随班就读的学生从1993年统计部门第一次正式统计的6.88万人增加到目前的25万人,这使得残疾儿童少年义务教育的普及率有了较快提高,特殊教育事业因此有了长足的进展.由此可以得出一个结论:随班就读这种安置残疾儿童少年接受义务教育的形式,对于推动我国特殊教育事业的发展起了举足轻重的作用.     

Feeling Different: Viewpoints of Students with Special Educational Needs

Barrie Wade (Reader in English in Education, in the School of Education, The University of Birmingham) and Maggie Moore (Senior Lecturer at Newman College, Birmingham) focus on ways in which students with special educational needs perceive themselves. They have discovered that a significant number of a cross-cultural sample, most of whom are denied school responsibilities, felt inadequate compared with their peers. It appears that more consultation, with serious implications for school policies, is necessary to lessen feelings of difference.     

Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness

Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members’ decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members’ likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute’s 2007–2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed.     

Genomics Literacy: Implications for Teaching Students with a Range of Special Needs

Recent developments in genomic-based knowledge is challenging educators to learn more about the early precursors of various difficulties children experience in learning and how they can use this information to identify preventative strategies or strategies that minimise their effect. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief outline of what is already known about some genetic disorders and some other disorders currently identified in the genome, the role of the teacher in understanding individual student needs, and how teachers can address some of the challenges posed. This article is fundamentally a review of the literature concerning genomics and genomic literacy and the implications for teachers in regular classes.     

Engaging Students in Science Courses: Lessons of Change from the Arctic

Where you live should have something to do with what you teach. In the Arctic, the idea of place-based education – teaching and sharing knowledge that is needed to live well – is central to the UARCTIC consortium and the 4^th International Polar Year educational reform effort. A place-based issue oriented context can engage students in chemistry concepts when it intersects with their experience and lives. This article examines the rationale and means of integrating local concerns such as world view, culture, traditional knowledge, and policy into both general and specialized chemistry courses. More broadly, capacious placebased issues should be widely adapted by all curriculum reform efforts to demonstrate the connectivity between science and societal understanding of technological options. A case in point is the inclusion of indigenous perspectives in a non-majors general chemistry course when the concepts of scientific method, ice and water resources, genetic engineering, and so forth are discussed. In a specialized course on radioactivity in the north, topics connected nuclear chemistry and radioactivity to people and energy. The local landscape should be central to science courses and involve issues relevant to stewardship, a component of the indigenous world view. The historical issues can be connected to current nuclear energy and uranium mining as they relate to the risks and benefits for the local community. This article will make the case that curriculum reform that focuses on real-world topics will not only engage students so that they perform well in class but also spark their interest so that they continue learning after the course is over.     

Teaching Science to Learners With Special Needs

A fundamental social justice issue worldwide is how to meet the needs of all learners, especially those with special needs who historically have faced discrimination, exclusion, and oppression due to special needs (physical, cognitive, or behavioral dimensions). This article focuses on the key questions that researchers interested in improving science education for students with special needs have examined empirically and lessons learned in regard to making science more accessible and relevant to them through evidence-based adapted instruction. The most promising insights culled from a review of the literature to achieve this goal for curriculum, instruction, and assessment are presented for science teachers at all grade levels, and also for school administrators and policy makers. A call for more research is made, with an emphasis placed on how teachers of science can best conduct and use practitioner research in this topic area.     

Special Education Needs of Language Minority Students

Special Education is instruction designed for Students who require some degree of modification in their educational programs because of intellectual,emotional,sensory,or physical impairments.Language minority students with disabilities are those students whose impairment adversely affects their ability to benefit from new changing living environments and a regular educational program.     

Beliefs About Social Skills Among Mothers of Preschoolers with Special Needs

Mothers of preschoolers with special needs (N = 280) were interviewed about their beliefs regarding the development of social skills. Children were viewed as below average in social competence, and social skills were perceived to be very important to develop but difficult to teach or change. Indirect, rather than direct strategies for helping children develop social skills were suggested most frequently. A belief in internal causation was more frequent than external; as hypothesized, internal attributions were negatively associated with the children's social-skills and adaptive abilities. Both internal attributions and low social-skills ability contributed independently to parenting stress.     

Beliefs About Social Skills Among Mothers of Preschoolers with Special Needs

Mothers of preschoolers with special needs (N = 280) were interviewed about their beliefs regarding the development of social skills. Children were viewed as below average in social competence, and social skills were perceived to be very important to develop but difficult to teach or change. Indirect, rather than direct strategies for helping children develop social skills were suggested most frequently. A belief in internal causation was more frequent than external; as hypothesized, internal attributions were negatively associated with the children's social-skills and adaptive abilities. Both internal attributions and low social-skills ability contributed independently to parenting stress.     

Developing the High School's Guidance Network to Cater for Students with Special Needs

A sample of guidance coordinators in New Zealand secondary schools were surveyed to ascertain the operation of guidance networks in catering for students with special needs. Information was obtained on the composition and role function of the network, changes over time, satisfactions and dissatisfactions. Findings indicate that the current emphasis on mainstreaming is aided by the presence of a strong guidance network which collaborates closely in decision‐making and program oversight. The guidance counsellor's role is one of crucial facilitator of management processes, as well as counselling specialist. Effectiveness of functioning is further enhanced by flexibility in role function, close integration with school staff, and clarity of professional goal. Data from this survey need to be corroborated by independent comments from service consumers.     

随班就读巡回指导工作现状及反思:巡回指导教师的视角

研究从三个地区20名视障儿童巡回指导教师的视角,对随班就读巡回指导工作现状进行全面深入的解读;探讨巡回指导工作开展的重点与难点。在教师对自身工作反思与建议的基础上,概括出目前随班就读巡回指导工作的主要问题是:巡回指导制度不完善导致教师内部动机不足,相应支持缺乏,工作全面但不深入。研究从加强巡回指导制度建设,提高观念意识,深入挖掘巡回指导工作内涵,以及巡回指导教师培养四个方面提出了相应建议。     

Computers for Special Needs Populations:

No abstract available for this article.     

Engaging in Science: A Feeling for the Discipline

Most accounts of affect and motivation in the science education literature have discussed them as relevant to, but distinct from, disciplinary pursuits. These include Pintrich’s seminal work on affective and motivational factors in learning science (P. R. Pintrich, 1999, 2003; P. R. Pintrich & E. De Groot, 1990; P. R. Pintrich, R. W. Marx, & R. A. Boyle, 1993). Our purpose here is to build on those ideas, drawing as well on accounts of scientists’ practices (e.g., H. E. Gruber, 1974; E. F. Keller, 1983) and of students’ taking up of disciplinary pursuits (R. A. Engle & F. R. Conant, 2002; R. Lehrer, 2009; M. Scardamalia & C. Bereiter, 1991, 2006) to propose that affect and motivation are inherent in the disciplinary practices of science. Thus, we introduce notions of epistemic affect and epistemic motivation, and we illustrate how these are evident in a case study of a student we have followed from 4th to 7th grade. We consider how this perspective aligns with and contributes to research on interest (e.g., S. Hidi, 2006; S. Hidi, K. A. Renninger, & A. Krapp, 2004; C. Sansone, 2009), and we discuss implications for research and instruction in science education. We argue that part of what should happen in the science class is to cultivate students’ feelings and motivations within the discipline.