Fostering higher‐order thinking in science class: teachers’ reflections

The study reported in this article aimed at exploring what teachers know and do about fostering higher‐order thinking skills in teaching science, and how they see themselves involved in achieving this end. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 11 teachers experienced in teaching high school physics, which is considered a relatively difficult but well‐established discipline. The findings highlighted a diversity among the teachers in four areas: meta‐strategic knowledge of the concept of higher‐order thinking; practical utilization of instructional strategies related to fostering higher‐order thinking in the classroom; beliefs about students’ abilities to acquire higher‐order thinking skills; and self‐perception regarding teaching towards higher‐order thinking. Regarding the second area, for example, some of the teachers reported using teaching strategies in class that could impede the development of students as autonomous thinkers; others occasionally try to foster higher‐order thinking among their students but regard this as a way of conveying subject content better; only a minority of the teachers see the fostering of higher‐order thinking as an important objective of teaching physics. In summary, teachers are frequently puzzled or uncertain about the entire issue of fostering higher‐order thinking in school. Introducing elements of constructivist pedagogy combined with the specific steps aimed at fostering higher‐order thinking into the science class is required to make the development of higher‐order thinking a regular ingredient in science teaching within the current schooling.     

以工作过程为导向的教师培训课程开发

面对高师函授生源逐年减少,学历补偿和学历提升的教育即将走到尽头的现实,继续坚持学科培川课程开发的路子必然日益困难。借鉴德国职业教育“学习领域”课程开发方案,以工作过程为导向,结合教师岗位技能特征,开发出工作过程与培训过程相融合的在职教师培训课程体系,不仅是提高在职教师岗位技能的有效路径,也是提高高师院校培训效益的出路所在。     

Investigating the decision-making skills of cooperating teachers and student teachers of English in a Turkish context

Research on decision-making skills of teachers has indicated the importance of experience. Also, occupational culture has been found significantly related to teachers’ thinking and behavior in the class. This study investigates in what aspects experienced teachers (cooperating teachers) and less experienced teachers) (student teachers) differ when making instant decisions on diverting from their lesson plans as they teach, and what cultural/institutional influences can be related to these differences. The data for this qualitative study came from four cooperating teachers and seven student teachers through several research instruments: video-taping the participant teachers’ lessons, the interviews held at post-teaching meetings, the written retrospectives, and the questionnaire. The findings indicate that while ‘timing’ and ‘classroom management’ were major motives for student teachers to make changes in their plans, cooperating teachers were more concerned about discipline problems. Both groups of teachers were equally affected by ‘motivation’, ‘physical conditions’ and ‘language skills’ in making instant decisions. The paper ends with the implications of the study for teacher training and education.     

Discipline problems at teachers’ colleges: lessons for lecturers and students

This case study worked with 80 lecturers drawn from Israeli teachers’ colleges who reported that they face relatively few discipline problems; most appeared to be related to low motivation and/or dishonest behaviour. They treated each case in an ad hoc way, responded mildly and avoided imposing sanctions. It is argued that the student teachers’ misconduct could have been used by their lecturers as excellent raw material to analyse the conditions in which problems are likely to occur in the school classroom, as well as to discuss possible underlying motivation of the provocative conduct, and to suggest ways for teachers to cope with these situations. Unfortunately, the lecturers did not draw any connections between the misbehaviour of the student teachers and the skills and moral values prospective teachers need to possess. The lack of transference from the college setting to the student teachers’ experience in the classroom is discussed with regard to the current highly competitive climate in which colleges must attract students.     

Relationship of teachers’ ratings of kindergarteners’ 21st century skills and student performance

This study investigated the relationship of kindergarten teachers’ ratings of their students’ 21st century skills (college readiness skills) with students’ behavioral and academic performance. Teachers rated the frequency that their students (n = 579) demonstrated persistence, curiosity, affective, and cognitive (e.g., critical thinking) behaviors within their classrooms via the Human Behavior Rating Scale: Brief (HBRS: Brief, a teacher rating scale. The relationship of the HBRS: Brief teachers’ ratings was compared with data the school annually collected (behavioral ratings, academic performance, student office discipline referrals [ODRs], and absences). Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that teachers’ ratings of students’ persistence and cognition behaviors were significantly associated with students’ academic performance. Teachers’ persistence, curiosity, and externalizing affect ratings were predictive of behavioral ratings and teachers’ externalizing affect ratings were significantly associated with ODRs. The results support the efficacy of investigating teacher perceptions of students’ 21st century skills with kindergarteners.     

The use of modern standard and spoken Arabic in mathematics lessons: the case of a diglossic language / El uso del árabe estándar moderno y del árabe hablado en las clases de matemáticas: el caso de una lengua diglósica

Abstract

Researchers have shown an increased interest in the way teachers use their knowledge about language (KAL) to enhance student understanding and learning. This qualitative case study investigated first- and second-grade teachers’ use of KAL in Arabic. We investigated the linguistic transitions from standard Arabic to spoken Arabic made by the teachers during mathematics lessons. The results suggested that Arab-speaking mathematics teachers were aware of the gap between home language (Spoken Arabic) and school language (Modern Standard Arabic) and used linguistic transition as a teaching strategy to develop academic thinking and behaviour among their students. The results suggested that Arab teachers built a non-formal bilingual education programme where the two languages were used to teach mathematics. Despite the requirement to use Modern Standard Arabic, participants bridged the gap between the languages, which suggests an inherent understanding that ‘language and identity are ultimately inseparable’.     

Use of webquest design for inservice teacher professional development

This study investigated whether a teacher professional development module built around designing WebQuests could improve teachers’ technological and pedagogical skills. The technological skills examined included Web searching and Web evaluating skills. The pedagogical skills targeted were developing a working definition for higher-order thinking skills, and designing WebQuest tasks to improve such skills. This case study was carried out with six inservice teachers. After the training, all the teachers showed improvement in their Web searching and evaluating skills. Furthermore, teachers adopted a working definition for higher-order thinking skills, and, using Web resources, they designed activities that promote students’ higher-order thinking. This study provides evidence supporting the use of design-based activities in learning technological and pedagogical skills and suggests an effective inservice teacher professional development module.     

公共英语教学定位转移中的专门用途英语教师身份认同研究

了解我国专门用途英语(ESP)教师的身份认同对于公共英语从通用英语向专门用途英语范式转移非常关键.我们对40多所高校109位ESP教师的问卷和访谈调查发现,ESP教师的身份认同度不高,他们教学主要还是停留在通用学术英语,没有花全力去从事与专业相关的ESP教学与研究.主要原因是外语界把ESP看成专业内容教学和ESP从教育...     

“I am not simply learning and regurgitating information,I am also learning about myself”: learning portfolio practice and online distance students

This case study explored the experience of learning portfolio practice and whether learning portfolio practice facilitated the development of critical thinking skills among online distance students. Data were generated using the participant learning portfolio entries and two-time semi-structured interviews. Five themes were constructed in the data-led thematic analysis: being an online distance student, the experience of learning with a learning portfolio, my approach to learning, thinking critically in my learning portfolio, the sociology discipline context. Findings indicate that learning portfolio practice can enhance the nature of the learning experience by providing students with a personal space to evaluate their own learning, to process their thoughts and experience and to document their lives and learning in an authentic and meaningful way. The findings suggest that learning portfolio practice can facilitate the development of critical thinking skills within a disciplinary context.     

民办高校英语教师对教材审辩思维内容的探究

教育信息化2.0时代给民办高校的教育带来机会的同时,也给师生的信息技术能力及信息素养带来了挑战。审辩思维是信息素养提高的前提,也是21世纪人才重要的特征,非常适合通过大学英语来培养。教材是大学英语教学的关键,但是现有教材的审辩思维比较笼统、含糊,教师有必要系统、深入地学习审辩思维并提升相关能力,再对教材进行系统、深入地审辩思维技能或倾向加工,实现大学英语对审辩思维既知其神又知其形的培养和提升,进而促进英语习得、跨文化交际和英语信息素养的培养。     

“This is the First Time I’ve Done This”: Exploring secondary prospective mathematics teachers’ noticing of students’ mathematical thinking

This mixed methods study investigates the ways in which secondary mathematics prospective teachers acquire skills needed to attend to, interpret, and respond to students’ mathematical thinking and the ways in which their perceived strengths and weaknesses influence their skills when this type of formalized training is not part of their program. These skills (attending, interpreting, and responding) are defined as teachers’ professional noticing of students’ thinking. Results indicate that seniors respond to students’ thinking in significantly different ways from juniors and sophomores. Converging the data highlighted inconsistencies in how participants’ were making sense of students’ mathematical thinking, as well as in participants’ self-identified strengths and weaknesses.     

Computational What? Relating Computational Thinking to Teaching

Computational thinking is one of the skills critical for successfully solving problems posed in a technology driven and complex society. The limited opportunities in school settings to help students develop computational thinking skills underscores the need for helping teachers integrate it in their practices. Besides developing the knowledge of technology, content, and pedagogy, teachers need to recognize the relevance of computational thinking to their teaching, a factor influencing their future practice with it. Drawing from the literature on problem-solving and TPACK framework, this paper discusses strategies, including content-specific examples, problem-solving nature of computational thinking, and the methods of teaching problem-solving for enabling teachers to make the connections between computational thinking and their practices.     

Educational Reform in Russia and the USA: where are the troops?

To determine the level of support that differing concepts of educational reform had among the actual practitioners of public education in the former Soviet Union and the USA, a sample of teachers was surveyed to measure the value they placed on divergent educational goal statements as well as their respective philosophical orientations. This study found that US teachers were most committed to educational goals related to basic skills development and critical thinking and least supportive of goals related to creativity and enculturation; Russian teachers on the other hand were most supportive of interpersonal understanding and human relations, moral and ethical well‐being, and critical thinking, and least supportive of the goal related to citizenship and civic responsibility. With regard to educational philosophical orientation, US teachers were divided between maintaining order and stability, developing individual interests and abilities, and improving society. Russian teachers were more united in their belief that the purpose of education is to develop individual interests and abilities, with a significant minority selecting the ‘transforming society’ orientation.     

The Relationship between Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Focus on Student Thinking in Lesson Analysis and Lesson Planning Tasks

This study explored whether pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) lesson analysis skills during a teacher education course in the country of Turkey were related to their skills of lesson planning. PSTs’ lesson analysis skills during fieldwork were assessed by their attention to and interpretation of student thinking and learning, and how it is influenced by the teachers’ instructional decisions. The PSTs’ lesson analysis scores were significantly and positively correlated with scores in lesson planning task focusing on student thinking. The findings contribute to the literature on whether PSTs’ lesson analysis skills may be transferred to one of the core activities of teaching.     

ESP实践者对批判性思维技能的感知与教学实践

批判性思维技能(CTS)已被证明能提高英语语言能力。教育界有关CTS如何在ESP英语教学中的运用的研究仍然是有限的。这篇论文运用定性研究方法探究5名ESP教师的和教学实践。研究显示教师在学习者中观察到缺乏对CTS的重视,几个因素导致这种状况。本研究结果旨在为教育工作者反思自己的CTS英语教学实践和整合提供一点意见。     

浅谈运用阅读学改革高校程序设计教学

目前高校的程序设计课堂教学大多采用依次讲解孤立知识点的方法，学生在学习时感到缺乏兴趣、理解有困难、缺乏通观全局的能力，这不利于我国软件人才的培养．因此如何引导学生丰富程序设计的学习方法和策略成为计算机教师们值得思考的一个问题．考虑到一个人所掌握的大部分编程技巧是通过阅读书本或他人程序的途径获取的，而阅读程序犹如阅读文章，两者有很多相通之处，因此可以在程序教学中借鉴和遵循阅读学的基本原则和基本方法，从而改革计算机程序设计教学，丰富学生的学习方法、提高程序设计水平．     

Science teaching techniques associated with higher-order thinking skills

Science teachers are encouraged to emphasize higher-order thinking skills, but little is known about the use and relationships of teaching techniques related to these skills. This study reports on a recent survey in Minnesota designed to provide a picture of the instructional styles that are used by seventh and eighth grade science teachers. Further, the data were factor analyzed to identify underlying structure and the resulting factors were correlated to examine the relationships between the factors. Although relationships do exist, it appears that seventh and eighth grade science teachers are individualistic and diverse in their reported teaching technique preferences.     

Enhancing Higher Order Thinking Skills Among Inservice Science Teachers Via Embedded Assessment

Testing students on higher order thinking skills may reinforce these skills among them. To research this assertion, we developed a graduate course for inservice science teachers in a framework of a “Journal Club”—a hybrid course which combines face-to-face classroom discussions with online activities, interrelating teaching, learning, and assessment. The course involves graduate students in critical evaluation of science education articles and cognitive debates, and tests them on these skills. Our study examined the learning processes and outcomes of 51 graduate students, from three consecutive semesters. Findings indicated that the students’ higher order thinking skills were enhanced in terms of their ability to (a) pose complex questions, (b) present solid opinions, (c) introduce consistent arguments, and (d) demonstrate critical thinking.