On line Forums as a `Rescue Net' in an Open Inquiry Process

The Biomind program is a new open inquiry program for Israeli biology high school students. The Biomind program is facilitated by diverse activities of asynchronous on-line forums for teachers and students. This research aims to analyse the discussions that occurred over a period of three years in these forums, in order to obtain a picture of the benefits that virtual discussions hold for the implementation of the open inquiry program. The results presented in this article indicate that students required assistance mainly with searching scientific information, finding experimental techniques and procedures, and phrasing inquiry questions. The three most frequent areas that were discussed in the teachers' forum were technical and procedural aspects of experimentation, bureaucracy and phenomenon identification. In addition, issues such as inferring and discussing, logical progression of the inquiry process, scientific writing, teacher-student interaction, reflective thinking, affective points of view, and forum administration were raised in the forum discourses. The forum discourses create a learning community that contributes to the implementation of the Biomind program, and pinpoint the aspects that should be taken into consideration in the future.     

Unpacking the narrative of non-positional leadership in academia: Hero and/or victim?

This article, based on narrative inquiry, explores how academics with/out formal leadership positions experience and understand themselves as leaders in their everyday working contexts. A single case of a fixed-term academic was chosen to illustrate how different analytical lenses – ‘plot analysis’ and ‘discourse analysis’ – can unpack the complexities of experience associated with non-positional leadership, a topic scarcely represented in studies of leadership in higher education. Two interdependent plots – the heroic plot and the victimised plot – were found to recur throughout the participant's narrative. These plots signified the conflictual dynamics and the unique subjectivity in which this person made sense of himself as a leader. The analytical lens was then shifted to pay greater attention to the ways in which broader networks of discourses were at play within this participant's narrative. Using discourse analysis, the discourses of autonomy and masculinity, among others, were present in constituting the unique subject positions the participant took up. The article concludes with a summary of methodological contributions this study offers to the field of leadership in higher education.     

Mapping Trade-Offs in Teachers' Integration of Technology-Supported Inquiry in High School Science Classes

This paper explores how two teachers concurrently enacting the same technology-based inquiry unit on evolution structured activity and discourse in their classrooms to connect students' computer-based investigations to formal domain theories. Our analyses show that the teachers' interactions with their students during inquiry were quite similar, and each teacher used whole-class discussions as a major vehicle for connecting students' understanding to formal domain theories. Each teacher, however, structured the discourse in these discussions quite differently. We interpret these differences as each teacher navigating a set of trade-offs to balance, on the one hand, opportunities for students to actively develop their own ideas, and on the other, their concerns that students develop normative understandings. We identify several dimensions of trade-offs that emerge from our data, and suggest how teachers' choices on these dimensions shape students' opportunities for learning.     

Books only got us so far: the need for multi‐genre inquiry

This study examines the instructional steps I took, based on gaps between what was happening in a graduate literacy class I taught and what I had intended to happen. This study describes the ways that I re‐imagined the class and what came about when I created a pedagogical approach that featured multi‐genre inquiry. I define inter‐discursivity as a signal of learning (i.e. when traces of language from one genre spill over into the language of other genres), and I searched for examples of this overlapping language in data. In doing so, I found that the multi‐genre approach led to moments of inter‐discursivity as teachers extended their understandings by appropriating language from one genre into another.     

语篇衔接研究新探

语言学界在如何看待衔接与连贯的关系这一问题上提出了许多不同的观点。文章首先论述了衔接的实质,然后从认知科学的角度探讨了语篇的衔接。     

教育中的“科学探究”:理论问题与实践策略

科学探究是当前国内外科学教育的关注热点。让学生经历真实的科学探究,教师需要了解真实科学探究的本质,明确科学探究的教育指向,学会引导学生开展科学探究的方法。真实科学探究是科学知识生成、验证和发展的过程,面对的是开放性的问题,需要探究者科学知识、有关科学的知识、直觉、想象力、创造性以及个性品质的介入,不存在一套普适性的、正确的方法和逻辑。教育中的科学探究不是让学生生成和验证新的科学知识,而是理解科学知识及其产生的过程,学习过程性科学技能,培养科学思维和科学理解,形成合理的科学本质和价值观。引导学生开展科学探究,教师需要学会创设不同结构化程度的探究情境,重视学生自由式的探索性活动,充分利用探究活动中的错误或失败引导学生进行科学思维,学会协商型的对话策略和引导学生进行科学思维的对话方法。     

The effects of scientific representations on primary students’ development of scientific discourse and conceptual understandings during cooperative contemporary inquiry-science

Teaching students to use and interpret representations in science is critically important if they are to become scientifically literate and learn how to communicate their understandings and learning in science. This study involved 248 students (119 boys and 129 girls) from 26 grade 6 teachers’ classes in nine primary schools in Brisbane, Australia. Teachers were randomly allocated by school to one of three conditions: the contemporary science + representations condition (Experimental^a), the contemporary condition (Experimental^b), or the comparison condition as they participated in an eight-week inquiry-science unit on Natural Disasters. Data on students’ discourse were collected at two time points during the implementation of the unit and data on the concept maps were collected pre- and post-intervention while data on the reasoning and problem-solving (RP-S) task were collected following the intervention. The results show that when students participate in an inquiry-based science unit that is augmented with a variety of multimedia resources presenting a range of current contemporary events (Experimental^a and Experimental^b conditions), they demonstrate significantly more social language and basic scientific language and marked increases in moderate scientific language than their peers in the comparison condition. Interestingly, although there were no significant differences on the Personal Concept Map scores between the conditions at Times 1 and 2, the students’ scores in all conditions improved decidedly across time. It appears that as the children had more time to engage with the material, participate in cooperative peer discussions, and receive encouragement from their teachers to provide elaborated feedback to each other, their conceptual understandings of earthquakes were enhanced. However, although the children in the experimental conditions demonstrated significantly more social and scientific language than their peers in the comparison condition, these oral language skills did not transfer to the RP-S task, possibly because they may not have had enough time to consolidate their application in a novel context where they had to work independently.     

文化分析中的话语和话语分析

在过去的十年里,话语分析一直成为了文化分析中一个不断引起热议的理论.该文介绍了话语及话语分析的背景,话语的定义、话语形成的过程以及话语分析的方法论,以奥地利为例阐述话语分析,并讨论了文化分析中的话语分析.     

文化分析中的话语和话语分析(英文)

在过去的十年里,话语分析一直成为了文化分析中一个不断引起热议的理论。该文介绍了话语及话语分析的背景,话语的定义、话语形成的过程以及话语分析的方法论,以奥地利为例阐述话语分析,并讨论了文化分析中的话语分析。     

大学英语阅读与语篇分析能力

语篇分析(discourse analysis)是指对比句子更长,以交际为目的的语言片段所作的语言及交际功能的分析,它包括微观分析与宏观分析。语篇分析是大学英语阅读教学中不可缺少的方法和手段。在阅读教学中辨别篇章组织模式、识别衔接手段、了解文中修辞手法、找段落主题句等是建构学生语篇分析能力的有效途径。     

大学英语阅读与语篇分析能力

语篇分析（discourse analysis）是指对比句子更长,以交际为目的的语言片段所作的语言及交际功能的分析,它包括微观分析与宏观分析。语篇分析是大学英语阅读教学中不可缺少的方法和手段。在阅读教学中辨别篇章组织模式、识别衔接手段、了解文中修辞手法、找段落主题句等是建构学生语篇分析能力的有效途径。