How science teachers' concerns about school‐based assessment of practical work vary with time: the Hong Kong experience

School‐based assessment of science students' practical skills has two important roles—as a complement to written papers in public examinations and as a catalyst for enriching the science curriculum in schools. This article describes a quantitative study of the concerns chemistry and biology teachers experience as they engage in the process of implementation of a school‐based assessment scheme for practical work. A 23‐item questionnaire was developed to measure five categories of teacher concern: evaluation, information, management, consequence and refocusing. The nature of each category of teacher concern is discussed in relation to innovation adoption and implementation. Data were collected from 400 chemistry and 412 biology teachers in Hong Kong. Teachers' information and management concerns lessened in intensity when they became experienced users of a school‐based assessment scheme. However, teaching experience alone could not motivate teachers to think more about the impact of school‐based assessment on student learning, their professional development in student assessment and the possible refinements in their school‐based assessment scheme. Concerns‐based interventions are suggested to help teachers grow professionally.     

Introduction to the special Issue “applied metacognition: real-world applications beyond learning”

Metacognition and Learning - Research in the area of metacognition is on the rise. Translating and applying the fruits of basic scientific results to various end-users and real-world scenarios is...     

‘Dry laboratories’ in science education; computer‐based practical work

Practical (laboratory) work in science education has traditionally been used to allow students to rediscover already known concepts and ideas, to demonstrate concepts taught in the classroom or, in the case of inquiry‐based science curricula, to teach concepts. Often, these laboratory practicals do not achieve their goals and may even confuse or demotivate students. It is not that using ‘wet’ practicals is intrinsically wrong; rather, it is that they are often used for the wrong reasons. They do have a place in science curricula ‐ for the conveyance of tacit knowledge that can only be achieved in the laboratory setting. In our view, their use should be restricted to that.

Non‐laboratory practicals ('dry labs'), and especially multimedia practicals, tend to be used for completely different reasons. They are best used to help students achieve specific cognitive skills (such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation) needed to practise science and to carry out scientific inquiry. This article sketches the problems associated with the use of dry laboratories in science education, presents design considerations for the use of such practicals in science education and presents examples of innovative non‐traditional practicals.     

Introduction to Special Issue—STEM Workforce: STEM Education and the Post-Scientific Society

Journal of Science Education and Technology - An assumption is often made that STEM shortages can be remedied by either increasing the number of STEM graduates or...     

Making practical work work: using discussion to enhance pupils’ understanding of physics

Background: Practical work is widely seen as a necessary part of a good physics education, but convincing evidence that it impacts positively on pupils’ learning is scarce. Recent work suggests the use of talk and discussion might hold the key to making practical work more educationally productive.

Purpose: The research question that this study aims to answer is: Can the use of targeted discussion improve learning through practical work?

Sample: The study took place in a medium-sized (700-pupil, Years 7–13 (ages 11–18)) mixed-gender independent (fee-paying) day school in southern England. It is academically selective and public examination results are above the national average. The activities were carried out with three teaching groups (n = 73) with a fourth being used occasionally for comparison purposes (giving n = 97).

Design and methods: Pupils were given a number of practical tasks – some from the usual scheme of work, some devised for this project – and given specific time to discuss with a partner the various aspects of the practical such as predictions, devising methods, problem-solving, conclusions or explanations of phenomena. Questionnaires and booklets were used to gather pupil responses. Some audio recording and analysis of pupil-pupil discussion was also done.

Results: There was evidence from booklets pupils filled in during the practical that prescribing the use of discussion at various points in a practical task led to improved outcomes, particularly on the more cognitively challenging tasks. In particular, discussion was seen to turn incorrect responses into correct ones much more frequently than the reverse. In a later exam, pupils who had participated in the discussion activities performed better than a control group on questions which directly related to practical concepts, but performed similarly on the remaining exam questions.

Conclusion: Evidence gathered suggests a more nuanced pattern than that reflected in previous literature: that discussion during practical work can impact positively on pupils’ understanding of ideas related to practical work, but does not necessarily have a positive impact on their wider understanding.     

Student participant‐observation in the contested workplace: the policy dilemmas of in‐school work experience

The study discussed in this paper examines the views on the workplace of year 11 students from an Australian metropolitan post‐primary school before and after they went out of the school into the workplace for two weeks work experience. One of the themes which emerged from the discussions with the students was related to the degree of control exerted by employers on employees and the oppositional response which is sometimes forthcoming from those employees. The views which form this theme are then placed within the context of a current debate on work experience. On the one hand some educationalists are advocating ‘jumping off the work experience bandwagon’, while on the other those scholars with a more critical stance are pointing to the educative potential of work experience.     

Using learning profiles to inform education priorities: An editors’ overview of the Special Issue

This special issue explores the use of learning profiles for analysing the dynamics of low learning in low- and middle-income countries and informing priorities to address the learning crisis. The 12 papers in the special issue draw on learning data from more than 50 countries and 6 million individuals, with implications for education policy and practice. Taken together, they point to a need to steepen learning trajectories by prioritizing early mastery of foundational skills for all children. The papers show that addressing the learning crisis will not be achieved through more school grade attainment alone, nor through within-country equality across groups (such as girls and boys or rich and poor). Positive examples show that programs focused on foundational learning both improved average learning and reduced inequality. Addressing the learning crisis will require a focus on systems improvement, using foundational learning as a case in point for making the needed systems improvements to steepen learning throughout children’s time in school. Learning profiles can provide a guide for education actors aiming to improve learning outcomes.     

Mini‐Enterprise in Schools: The Pupils’ Experience

Abstract

Mini‐enterprise in schools is the most tangible manifestation of ‘education for enteprise’. Despite its growing presence in schools, and diverse views about its potential impact, little is known about how pupils experience such activity. Findings suggest that interpersonal learning objectives are achieved effectively through mini‐enterprise but more narrow economic goals (such as fostering positive attitudes towards self‐employment) may not be. This paper sets out the pupils’ perspective on mini‐enterprise in schools and raises questions about current models of practice.     

Foreword for the Special Issue ——International Workshop on Metamaterials and Negative Refraction

Electromagnetic properties of materials are often described using the concept of refraction index. The re- fraction index of a natural material is always positive. However, some artificially designed materials–so-called metamaterials–can act as negative-index media (NIM). Such media open new avenues for achieving extraor- dinary physical properties functionality unattainable with naturally-existing materials. On entering another medium from one medium, light usually refracts at a positive …     

The magic roundabout: work‐related learning within the 14–19 curriculum

This article examines the cyclical nature of government policy vis‐à‐vis work‐related learning. First, it looks at the purposes and types of work‐related learning which exist in the 14–19 educational phase. Second, it describes the policy history surrounding work‐related learning, highlighting policy emphasis on recurring themes such as enterprise education, workplace socialisation, motivation and academic achievement. Third, the way in which work‐related learning has been organised is described. This leads to a discussion of whether and to what extent the multiplicity of purposes of work‐related learning set out by the government can actually be achieved. More importantly, it suggests that the organisational and policy aspects of work‐related learning are offered as ‘new and improved products’ every so often, and that more empirical research should be undertaken and thought given before the results of this agenda can be judged effectively.     

Re‐imagining doctoral education: Professional Doctorates and beyond

Portents of the demise of the Professional Doctorate have emerged in some recent policy and institutional circles in Australia, raising questions about the meaning and relevance of the Professional Doctorate in an era of ‘league tables’ and research assessment in Australia. This article argues that such portents, based largely on narrow market‐driven arguments, are premature, reactive and unhelpful, in that they foreclose on a set of critical questions concerning the future purpose, scope and practice of doctoral education. The article argues that the simple re‐assertion of the PhD as the default award represents a restoration of the logics and imperatives of disciplinarity and of older notions of so‐called ‘real’ research. Further, questions of the changing economies of knowledge and practice within, between and beyond the reach of the university, are subordinated and disavowed. The article presents a re‐reading of the emergence of Professional Doctorates, from the perspective of a decade‐and‐a‐half of development and change. It suggests the need to revisit that history critically in the light of the current developments in doctoral education, in knowledge production and in developing different relations around knowledge between universities and different social and professional domains. Such revisitings can bring out emerging issues for doctoral education at a time when anxieties may inhibit taking up opportunities for innovation and linking with new kinds of knowledge production that go beyond Euro‐centric and university‐centric traditions.     

Beyond the boundaries: resistances to school‐based youth work in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, attention is currently focused on youth work in the context of wider changes associated with the integration of services for young people. Policy‐makers there have identified youth work as having potential to link formal and informal education. However, youth work has often been understood as predominantly out‐of‐school provision embodying different values and principles from that of schooling. Increasingly, and as ideas about education shift, schools have become an important setting for youth work, generating much debate amongst policy‐makers, youth workers and teachers. One important question is whether the school setting is an appropriate context for informal learning. This article draws on interviews completed with teachers and youth workers and explores their experiences of school‐based youth work in one part of Northern Ireland.     

Supporting teachers in making innovative changes in the use of computer‐aided practical work to support concept development in physics education

There continues to be a gulf between what have been identified from the literature as the potential benefits of using computer‐aided practical work and the difficulties of realizing them as reported by practising teachers, even from those who are committed to the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This article reports on a pilot study that aimed to explore ways in which teachers could be supported as they explore the extent to which this approach could enhance the development of pupils’ understanding of physics concepts. The study was based on a collaborative partnership between a researcher and a classroom teacher. The indications are that there is the potential for considerable benefits from such an approach, with the need for further development of materials and teaching methods being identified.     

In the physics class: university physics students’ enactment of class and gender in the context of laboratory work

This article explores how the doing of social class and gender can intersect with the learning of science, through case studies of two male, working-class university students’ constitutions of identities as physics students. In doing so, I challenge the taken-for-granted notion that male physics students have an unproblematic relation to their chosen discipline, and nuance the picture of how working-class students relate to higher education by the explicit focus on one disciplinary culture. Working from the perspective of situated learning theory, the interviews with the two male students were analysed for how they negotiated the practice of the physics student laboratory and their own classed and gendered participation in this practice. By drawing on the heterogeneity of the practice of physics the two students were able to use the practical and technological aspects of physics as a gateway into the discipline. However, this is not to say that their participation in physics was completely frictionless. The students were both engaged in a continuous negotiation of how skills they had learned to value in the background may or may not be compatible with the ones they perceived to be valued in the university physicist community.