Student Agency in Negotiating the Relationship Between Science and Religion

Research in Science Education - Research examining the relationship between science and religion has often painted a narrative of conflict for students with various religious beliefs. The purpose...     

Negotiating White science in rural Black America: A case for navigating the landscape of teacher knowledge domains

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of requisite teacher knowledge for teaching lower-track science students. Using video accounts, student focus groups, and teacher reflections researchers documented missteps, dead-ends, and unfruitful trajectories informed by the teacher’s incoming knowledge and compared these instances to necessary modifications informed by students’ voices and cultural artifacts. Our study revealed the shifting nature of sociocultural and pedagogical content knowledge of the teacher immersed in a context unlike that he experienced as a student. Results showed that teachers of majority backgrounds could learn to teach diverse students with at least moderate success from the perspective of their students. Implications for research and teacher education in diverse settings are discussed.     

Unpacking Participatory Research in Education

The authors of this paper are members of Ottawa Participatory Researchers in Education (OPRE) a group of teachers, university academics, and students attempting to develop research initiatives using democratic and collaborative research approaches. Building on the experiences of the group, the paper examines and problematizes three elements typically ascribed to non-traditional research approaches: a social action focus, a transformative objective, and a participatory process. Particular emphasis is placed on the questions of who participates, in what ways, and under what conditions. As a result of OPRE's experience and self reflection, seven traps of "pseudo-democracy" are identified and illustrated as potential problems in research purporting to embody equal collaboration between university based academics and community members, such as teachers and students. It is argued that in order to further a democratic research process, equality of opportunity to participate cannot be assumed at any stage of the research process. Attention is paid to the following stages: setting the research agenda, the research epistemology, chronology of the project, representativeness of project participants, funding processes, knowledge cultures, and dissemination choices. Conclusions call for raising awareness of the possibility of teachers and students collaborating to identify research issues of mutual concern and developing a controlling role in research where academics are included as consultants and equals, but not as the possessors of superior and controlling research expertise.     

Science on the Fairgrounds: From Black to White Magic

During the 18th and 19th centuries, numerous “entrepreneurs de spectacles scientifiques” — a new category of “stall-keepers” — travelled around France, displaying their scientific shows to the public. They turned out to be physics demonstrators, magicians, mechanical engineers or curators of museums of anatomy. A general survey of these shows is not easy because we have but few documents to consider. Through a various set of texts and pictures, we’ll try to understand the general philosophy of these shows: the wonder, the novelty and the surprising are the key-ideas which prevail and not only the idea that these shows mostly deliver knowledge. But above all, we will see that these shows played an important part in popularizing the 19th century scientific achievement as well as achieving the 18th century goal of the Enlightenment. Finally, we may question and discuss the 21st century answer to the question of science understood as entertainment: “science’tainment” as we say: “info’tainment”!     

Blocking CRT: How the Emotionality of Whiteness Blocks CRT in Urban Teacher Education

Although Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been applied to teacher education, it has yet to be meaningfully integrated into the core of urban teacher education programs. The reticence to embrace CRT is largely due to the overwhelming presence of Whiteness, despite Sleeter's (2001) demand for diversification. This theoretically interpretative article employs CRT's methodology of counterstorytelling to interrogate how Whiteness manifests itself in emotional ways, like fetishism and sentimentalization, and how such emotions are the root of resistance toward CRT in teacher education. Drawing from Black feminism and Critical Whiteness Studies, we utilize emotionally-based theories to illustrate the importance of CRT in teacher education, to identify barriers to CRT, and to recommend how teacher education can more genuinely reinvest in antiracism.     

Unpacking the logic of mathematical statements

This study focuses on undergraduate students' ability to unpack informally written mathematical statements into the language of predicate calculus. Data were collected between 1989 and 1993 from 61 students in six small sections of a bridge course designed to introduce proofs and mathematical reasoning. We discuss this data from a perspective that extends the notion of concept image to that of statement image and introduces the notion ofproof framework to indicate that part of a theorem's image which corresponds to the top-level logical structure of a proof. For simplified informal calculus statements, just 8.5% of unpacking attempts were successful; for actual statements from calculus texts, this dropped to 5%. We infer that these students would be unable to reliably relate informally stated theorems with the top-level logical structure of their proofs and hence could not be expected to construct proofs or validate them, i.e., determine their correctness.     

Unpacking the Complex Relationship Between Beliefs,Practice, and Change Related to Inquiry-Based Instruction of One Science Teacher

This case study examines the complex relationship between beliefs, practice, and change related to inquiry-based instruction of one science teacher teaching in a high-poverty urban school. This study explores how video-supported collaboration with peers can provide the catalyst for change. Transcribed collaborative dialogue sessions, written self-reflections, and videotapes of lessons were used to identify and isolate the belief systems that were critical to the teacher’s decision making. The Interconnected Model of Professional Growth was then used to trace the trajectories of change of the individual belief systems. Analysis of the data revealed the relationship between beliefs and practices was complex in which initially espoused beliefs were often inconsistent with enacted practice and some beliefs emerged as more salient than others for influencing practice. Furthermore, this research indicates change in both beliefs and practice was an interactive process mediated by collaborative and self-reflection through participation in the video-supported process.     

The Use of Triadic Dialogue in the Science Classroom: a Teacher Negotiating Conceptual Learning with Teaching to the Test

Research in Science Education - The purpose of this research is to better understand the uses and potential of triadic dialogue (initiation-response-feedback) as a dominant discourse pattern in...     

Negotiating the Inquiry Question: A Comparison of Whole Class and Small Group Strategies in Grade Five Science Classrooms

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of two strategies for negotiating the question for exploration during science inquiry on student achievement and teachers' perceptions. The study is set in the context of the Science Writing Heuristic. The first strategy (small group) consisted of each group of four students negotiating a question for inquiry with the teacher while the second strategy (whole class) consisted of the entire class negotiating a single question for inquiry with the teacher. The study utilized a mixed-method approach. A quasi-experimental repeated measures design was used to determine the effect of strategy on student achievement and semi-structured teacher interviews were used to probe the question of teacher perceptions of the two strategies. Teacher observations were conducted using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to check for variation in implementation of the two strategies. Iowa Test of Basic Skills Science (ITBSS) (2005 and 2006) and teacher/researcher developed unit exams (pre and post) were used as student achievement measures. No statistically significant differences were found among students in the two treatment groups on the ITBSS or unit exams. RTOP observations suggest that teacher implementation was consistent across the two treatment strategies. Teachers disclosed personal preferences for the two strategies, indicating the whole class treatment was easier to manage (at least at the beginning of the school year) as students gained experience with science inquiry and the associated increased responsibility. Possible mechanisms linking the two strategies, negotiated questions, and student outcomes are discussed.     

Unpacking the hidden efficacies of learning in productive failure

This paper describes a framework for learning where learners undergo experimentations with the phenomena at hand according to progressive and staged goals. Bowling is used as a case study in this paper. The premise for experimentations is that learners can experience hidden efficacies, including the formation of “bad habits.” A distinction is made between productivity in learning and performance in terms of learning outcomes. In other words, productivity in learning may not necessarily manifest in successful performance, hence the term productive failure. To emphasize the need for self-regulation during problem-solving process, we discuss the movements within the productive–unproductive and success–failure dimensions through three-staged self-regulatory processes and draw implications to learning and instruction.     

Negotiating Cross-cultural Education in the Visual Arts

This paper looks at the problems posed by a Eurocentric Visual Arts education in Australia. It illustrates the cultural circumstances that created an environment sympathetic to a move away from an Euro-American cultural emphasis towards a more Asian centred programme. It describes how the Western Australian School of Visual Arts chose a conceptual model appropriate to the task of re-aligning the objectives and content of the teaching of visual art theory at the School. The debates considered essential to the development of a course of study appropriate to the evolving of a post-colonial, multi-cultural Australia are examined. The benefits and problems of the Modernist agenda in Australia are discussed alongside proposals that promote understanding of cultural difference. The intention is to produce graduates who are aware of the relevance of cross cultural negotiation in contemporary Australian art and design practice, and who have a familiarity with current theoretical models of cross cultural negotiation and exchange.     

Unpacking recognition and esteem in school pedagogies

The article focuses on pedagogical practices of recognition and esteem (Wertschätzung) and on the question of how those practices can be appropriately studied and epistemologically grasped. The investigation involves an inner-city elementary school in a socio-economically problematic district. With regard to the communication forms in this specific school, we identify specific practices which constitute a culture of recognition and esteem that provides a reference framework and performative space to those involved. But what does a culture of recognition and esteem designate? Three heuristic categories have been developed as a result of our study in order to better describe and define the phenomenon: (1) the act of recognition and esteem, (2) the creation of an atmosphere of recognition and esteem and (3) the practices of shaping a culture of recognition and esteem. We analyse the verbal, non-verbal and performative aspects of communication within the context of schooling. The data were produced as part of an ethnographic research collaboration that has lasted over 12 years and which was initiated in the context of the Berlin Ritual Study at Freie Universität Berlin. The ethnography is based on participant observation and videography of pupils aged 8–12 years. Our systematisation of recognition and esteem shows a potentiality to describe a phenomenon without reducing complexity and highlights the everyday work of pedagogical practice.     

Pathways of Disadvantage: Unpacking the Intergenerational Correlation in Welfare

Our goal is to investigate the pathways that link welfare receipt across generations. We undertake a mediation analysis in which we not only calculate the intergenerational correlation in welfare, but also quantify the portion of that correlation that operates through key mechanisms. Our data come from administrative welfare records for young people (aged 23–26) and their parents over nearly two decades which have been linked to survey responses from young people at age 18. The mediators we consider jointly explain nearly a third (32.2 percent) of the intergenerational correlation in welfare receipt. The primary mechanism linking welfare receipt across generations is the failure to complete high school. Adolescents in welfare-reliant families experience more disruptions in their schooling (e.g., school changes and residential mobility, expulsions and suspensions) and receive less financial support from their families both of which impact on their chances of completing high school and avoiding the welfare roll. Young people's risk-taking behavior (smoking, illicit drug use, delinquency and pregnancy) is also a key mechanism underpinning intergenerational welfare reliance. Physical and mental health, work-welfare attitudes and academic achievement, in contrast, have a more modest role in transmitting welfare receipt across generations.     

论劳动合同中的缔约过失责任

劳动合同属于兼具公私法性质的社会法调整范畴,在多个方面区别于民事合同,但其仍具有合同的本质特征。以传统债法为制度基础的缔约过失责任同样应适用于劳动合同,以弥补当事人因受对方违背诚实信用原则而导致的直接损失与部分间接损失。在劳动立法全球化的背景下,《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》借鉴了部分国家的做法,较为明确地规定了劳动合同中的缔约过失责任。结合我国立法与司法实践,应准确把握劳动缔约过失责任的若干情形,明确其归责原则与举证责任,科学界定责任人的赔偿范围。     

分解课程标准的意涵和取向

课程标准是高层次的学习目标,并非课堂教学的直接、具体目标。将课程标准分解为学习目标,并转化为评价方式、教学内容和活动,是实施基于标准的课程与教学不容忽略的重要课题。本文主要讨论"分解课程标准是什么"这一问题,分析课程标准分解的含义、历程、要素、本质和特性,阐释分解课程标准的意义,并讨论实践中分解课程标准的观点以及宜采用的取向。