Roger Osborne (1940–1985), University of Waikato, New Zealand

This short paper outlines the emergence and achievements of the Science Education Research Unit at the University of Waikato over the period 1979–1985 under the leadership of the late Dr. Roger Osborne. Following his attendance at the ASERA meeting in Wagga Wagga in 1977, Roger Osborne rapidly built up a very productive team, which he led until his death in 1985. His legacy is tentatively evaluated. In conclusion, the cultural context in which this work took place is sketched.

A Network Approach to Preparing Underrepresented Students: The LEAD Model

Results are reported from an empirical study of an interorganizational collaboration to prepare underrepresented students for elite postsecondary education and beyond. The LEAD (Leadership Education and Development) Program in Business is an initiative involving twelve U.S. universities, nearly forty multinational corporations, a federal government agency, and a nonprofit organization working together to introduce students to business education and careers in business. This article analyzes the conditions that give rise to the collaboration, its essential structural characteristics, and the consequences that flow from it.

Education for All in India: assessing progress towards Dakar goals

About 60 years ago India established a policy of providing free and compulsory education to all children and began transforming the elite education system inherited from its colonial past into a mass education program. The task became a race against a rapidly growing population, which outstripped the pace at which children could be enrolled and educated in schools. Notwithstanding this demographic challenge, the system grew in size and the number of children participating in school grew many-fold. The struggle to reach the long cherished goal of universal elementary education continues even today. The present paper highlights two decades of EFA progress, paying particular attention to quantitative trends since 2001, and the policies framed and the strategies implemented to achieve greater equity and quality in the provision of basic education.

Compatibility between cultural studies and conceptual change in science education: there is more to acknowledge than to fight straw men!

In this response, we attempt to clarify our position on conceptual change, state our position on mental models being a viable construct to represent learning, indicate important issues from the social cultural perspective that can inform our work on conceptual change and lastly comment on issues that we consider to be straw men. Above all we argue that there is no best theory of teaching and learning and argue for a multiple perspective approach to understanding science teaching and learning.

Inclusive education: pushing the boundaries

This special issue is introduced. The issue draws together a selection of articles uniting theoretical and field research dealing with the notion of inclusive education and the challenges encountered in the policy-making and implementation processes. These articles represent diverse, multifaceted theoretical, disciplinary and methodological approaches to inclusion. Throughout the issue, inclusion is seen as a guiding principle, helping to accomplish quality Education for All (EFA)—education systems that benefit from diversity, aiming to build a more just, democratic society. This special issue is devoted to the theme of the 48th International Conference of Education, “Inclusive Education: The Way of the Future” (Geneva, 25–28 November, 2008).

Assessing learning,quality and engagement in learning objects: the Learning Object Evaluation Scale for Students (LOES-S)

Learning objects are interactive web-based tools that support the learning of specific concepts by enhancing, amplifying, and/or guiding the cognitive processes of learners. Research on the impact, effectiveness, and usefulness of learning objects is limited, partially because comprehensive, theoretically based, reliable, and valid evaluation tools are scarce, particularly in the K-12 environment. The purpose of the following study was to investigate a Learning Object Evaluation Scale for Students (LOES-S) based on three key constructs gleaned from 10 years of learning object research: learning, quality or instructional design, and engagement. Tested on over 1100 middle and secondary school students, the data generated using the LOES-S showed acceptable internal reliability, face validity, construct validity, convergent validity and predictive validity.

The Concept of Nondeterminism: Its Development and Implications for Teaching

Nondeterminism is a fundamental concept in computer science that appears in various contexts such as automata theory, algorithms and concurrent computation. We present a taxonomy of the different ways that nondeterminism can be defined and used; the categories of the taxonomy are domain, nature, implementation, consistency, execution and semantics. An historical survey shows how the concept was developed from its inception by Rabin & Scott, Floyd and Dijkstra, as well as the interplay between nondeterminism and concurrency. Computer science textbooks and pedagogical software are surveyed to determine how they present the concept; the results show that the treatment of nondeterminism is generally fragmentary and unsystematic. We conclude that the teaching of nondeterminism must be integrated through the computer science curriculum so that students learn to see nondeterminism both in terms of abstract mathematical entities and in terms of machines whose execution is unpredictable.

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Trends in inclusive education at regional and interregional levels: issues and challenges

The UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE), through the Community of Practice (COP) in Curriculum Development, organized eight Regional Preparatory Workshops on Inclusive Education in 2007. These workshops had the overall goal of initiating a participatory, consultative process in order to highlight key issues and challenges regarding inclusive education, to be presented at the 48th session of the International Conference of Education (ICE) 2008. Each preparatory regional workshop centred on four sub-themes around which the IBE Council has proposed to articulate the 48th ICE: Approaches, Scope and Content; Public Policies; Systems, Links and Transitions; Learners and Teachers. In the framework of conceptual dimensions of inclusive education, and the sub-themes of ICE 2008, this article identifies trends across regions within the ICE sub-themes and highlights points for future debate on inclusive education.

ASERA: brief histor(y/ies)

This collection of historical accounts provides diverse perspectives on the structure and culture of the community of researchers who participate in activities of the Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA). It describes the formation of the Association, and identifies major changes and challenges for the ever growing and internationalisation of its membership.

Examining the effect of problem type in a synchronous computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment

This study investigated the effect of well- vs. ill-structured problem types on: (a) group interactional activity, (b) evolution of group participation inequities, (c) group discussion quality, and (d) group performance in a synchronous, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Participants were 60 11th-grade science students working in three-member groups (triads) who were randomly assigned to solve a well- or an ill-structured problem scenario on Newtonian Kinematics. Although groups solving ill-structured problems generated more problem-centered interactional activity (a positive effect), they also exhibited participation patterns that were more inequitable (a negative effect) than groups solving well-structured problems. Interestingly, inequities in member participation patterns exhibited a high sensitivity to initial exchange and tended to get “locked-in” early in the discussion, ultimately lowering the quality of discussion and, in turn, the group performance. Findings and their implications for theory, methodology, and scaffolding of CSCL groups are discussed.

Building a pipeline for diversity through intersectoral collaboration

Findings are presented from a year-long study of a cross-sector collaboration to prepare underrepresented students for postsecondary education and beyond. The LEAD (Leadership Education and Development) Program in Business is an initiative involving universities, corporations, a federal government agency, and a nonprofit coordinating body in an effort to introduce students to business education and careers in business. This paper analyzes and compares (1) the starting conditions catalyzing the involvement of different sectors, (2) sustainability factors, (3) negotiation of the terms of involvement, (4) the actual experience of partnership, and (5) the difference made by a coordinated approach to pipeline development.

Peer Coaching: Professional Development for Experienced Faculty

The professoriate, as a whole, is growing older and more experienced; yet institutions often overlook the professional development needs of mid-career and senior faculty. This article, based on a review of the literature and the development of a peer coaching project, examines peer coaching as a professional development opportunity for experienced faculty that meets many of their immediate needs and offers a variety of longer-term benefits to their institution. Six recommendations for creating a peer coaching program emerge from the literature and the authors’ experience.

The critical, relational practice of instructional design in higher education: an emerging model of change agency

This paper offers an emerging interpretive framework for understanding the active role instructional designers play in the transformation of learning systems in higher education. A 3-year study of instructional designers in Canadian universities revealed how, through reflexive critical practice, designers are active, moral, political, and influential in activating change at interpersonal, professional, institutional and societal levels. Through narrative inquiry the voices of designers reflect the scope of agency, community and relational practice in which they regularly engage with faculty in institutions of higher learning.

On the Hypothetico-Deductive Nature of Science—Darwin’s Finches

Allchin (2006) has misinterpreted a classic case of hypothetico-deductive (HD) science in terms of his preferred ‘let’s-gather-some-data-and-see-what-emerges’ view. The misrepresentation concerns the research program of Peter and Rosemary Grant on Darwin’s finches. The present essay argues that the Grants’ research is HD in nature and includes a statement by Peter Grant to that effect.

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Critical physics agency: further unraveling the intersections of subject matter knowledge, learning, and taking action

In this rejoinder to Bryan Brown and John Reveles, we highlight the facts that (a) sociocultural theories of learning do not go far enough because they fail to address a number of issues and (b) we require concepts such as power and positionality to understand science learning.

Responding to diversity: the challenge of expanding basic education for young people in the south

This article explores the extent to which and how non-formal education (NFE) contributes to the development of a more diversified basic education system and thus to the achievement of EFA. It outlines the current nature of NFE, the frameworks provided by the EFA movement, and the evolution of reflection, policies and practices in NFE in relation to basic education as a whole. Based on significant developments in various countries across the South, the article also discusses some key challenges that ministries of education and their partners need to face in moving towards relevant and equitable diversity in education. The article posits that, despite the many problems faced by NFE, there is justification for building on its experiences and integrating these within a larger policy and systems framework that responds more effectively to needs and circumstances of children and young people.

The Virtual Learning Environment ROODA: An Institutional Project of Long Distance Education

This article describes ROODA (), a virtual learning environment and one of the official Long Distance Education platforms that has been in use since 2005 at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is free software that integrates syncronous and assyncronous interaction/communication tools and publications. In this study, details about institutional demands in relation to long distance education are discussed and ROODA is described with the components that were part of its development such as: modelling and programming, graphic interface and documents for users. Moreover, 19 functions were conceived. Finally, project investigation paths are presented where the platform described is inserted.