The assessment of practical work in school science

In this paper we provide an overview of the literature on understandings of drop out/opt out from science, technology and mathematics (STM) higher education programmes. After outlining the literature on students leaving higher education programmes in general, we then explore the research on drop out/opt out from STM programmes in particular, with an emphasis on research since 2000. We show that most of the research focuses on overcoming deficits in students' prior knowledge, but that a more specific focus on identities as an analytical framework for understanding young people leaving STM higher education programmes is also emerging. We show that it is important to shift from considering drop out as an individual problem for the student to regard it as a feature of the relationship between students and their study programmes. In the same way, measures to increase retention rates must shift from focusing on individual student adaptation to studies addressing institutional change. However, this change is difficult since it is entwined with fundamental conceptions of science and teaching.     

Online support for primary school pupils: project eDIHO

The paper describes the history, results and teaching experiences associated with an educational project eDIHO that was designed as a model of teacher education enabling student teachers to teach online. The paper analyses and evaluates practical experiences gained in project activities and summarises methodological perspectives for the online support of primary school educators and those in teacher education courses.

Online‐Unterstützung von Grundschülern: das eDIHO Projekt

In diesem Papier werden die Entwicklung, die Ergebnisse und die Lehrerfahrungen geschildert, die am Unterrichtsprojekt eDIHO , das als Lehrerbildungsmodell zur Befähigung von Studenten zum Online‐Lehren entwickelt worden war, gewonnen wurden. Der Beitrag analysiert und evaluiert praktische Erfahrungen, die bei der Arbeit in diesem Projekt gewonnen wurden und stellt die methodologischen Perspektiven für die Online‐Unterstützung für Grundschüler und die für die Lehrerbildung zusammen.

Soutien en ligne pour les élèves de l’école primaire:projet eDIHOS

Cet article décrit l’histoire, les résultats et les expériences d’enseignement associées à un projet éducatif eDIHO qui a été établi comme maquette de formation des Maîtres permettant aux futurs professeurs d’enseigner en ligne.Cette étude analyse et évalue les expériences pratiques acquises dans les activités du projet et résume les perspectives méthodologiques qui s’offrent au soutien en ligne tant pour aider les éducateurs du primaire que ceux qui donnent des cours de formation des maîtres.     

A completed research and development work project in school: The teachers’ learning and possibilities, premises and challenges for further development

The article is based on a follow-up study of a research and development work project with school leaders and teachers conducted in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The purpose is to present an understanding of what the practitioners find they have learned during the project and how they experience the situation with regard to development about two years after the project has ended. The study concludes that continuity in both leadership and the teaching staff means that the involved practitioners can develop an identity with a common objective over time, and that development can then be seen as improvement.     

集中性实践教学环节的教学改革研究

在与企业的交流中发现,学校的实践教学获得的认同度并不高。考察高等院校的教学活动,对于学生,本质上是一种基于资源的学习;对于学校,师资建设、实验室与实习基地建设等,本质上是一个教学资源的建设。工科学生实践教学环节训练乏力的问题,实际是一个实践教学资源缺失的问题。对于实践教学的重点部分如集中性实践教学环节,其教学资源建设的重点在于拓展与企业的合作渠道,把教学环境转移到企业现场,并结合CDIO大纲和企业培训纲要来指导教学,使得实践教学环节尽可能映射工程实践。介绍了基于上述思考的教学改革试点工作。     

A framework for practical work in science and scientific literacy through argumentation

This paper draws on earlier work on ideas that underpin the collection and use of evidence in science in schools. It establishes that different types of practical work share the same procedural underpinnings. It then takes the work of Toulmin on argumentation to suggest that the idea of the ‘public claim’ can be used to forge a link between scientific experimentation in schools and emerging ideas of scientific literacy. It concludes with a discussion of possible implications.     

Producing the evidence: Science teachers' initiations into practical work

The quantity, quality and fitness for purpose of much school practical work has come in for some criticism. This paper reports on questionnaire and interview studies with trainee science teachers. The study examined the reasons and justifications that teachers give for the way in which they conduct practical work. The particular focus is on counter-normative behaviour and what the behaviour indicates about the status of empirical work and the purpose of evidence in science classrooms. The questionnaire was completed by 40 trainee teachers. The analysis of the questionnaire determined the number of teachers who had produced results fraudulently either on their own initiative or had been initiated into it by experienced teachers and/or laboratory technicians. From the questionnaire we were able to select a small sample who we interviewed in order to unpack further the questionnaire responses. In discussing our data, a case for the re-evaluation of practical work in science education will be made and it will be argued that science teacher behaviour is best understood anthropologically. Possible implications for mentoring and school based training are mentioned briefly.     

普通高中化学学业质量水平的解构与重组——来自一线教师的“学业质量水平”解读视角

基于一线教师熟悉的语境,依托核心概念、科学方法、学科价值三个一级指标,以及化学变化本质、结构与性质、反应与能量、速率与平衡、分类思想、多重表征、实验探究、证据推理、应用物质、转化物质、作用与贡献、态度与责任12个二级指标,对高中化学学业质量水平的描述进行解构与重组。     

Secondary school students’ attitudes to practical work in biology,chemistry and physics in England

ABSTRACT

Background: In England, practical work is a major part of secondary school science and yet little research has examined students’ attitudes specifically to practical work.

Purpose: To examine students’ attitudes to practical work in biology chemistry and physics in secondary schools in England.

Sample: The study involved 607 students from Year 7 to Year 10 (aged 11–15) drawn from three state-maintained secondary schools in England. The schools were, broadly speaking, representative of schools in England in terms of academic measures such as GCSE outcomes, value-added performance and socio-economic area.

Design and methods: The research considered students’ attitudes in terms of an established analytical framework incorporating the affective, behavioural and cognitive (ABC) domains and used a mixed methods approach involving questionnaires, lesson observations, and focus group discussions.

Results: Whilst secondary students’ attitudes to practical work were, generally speaking, positive they were not constant and homogenous but change over time. The affective value of practical work was found to vary by subject although in all three sciences this value decreased, albeit at different rates, as students approached their General Certificate in Secondary Education examinations (GCSE) taken at age 16.

Conclusion: The affective value of practical work needs to be considered on a subject by subject basis, rather than, as is often the case currently in school, in terms of a generic attitude to science practical work. Furthermore, the affective value of practical work can be maximised by using more at the start of secondary education (Key Stage 3 – ages 11–14) with a gradual, subject-specific, reduction as students approach their summative public examinations (age 16) when their preference for non-practical, exam orientated, teaching increases.     

The start-up phase in a research and development work project: A foundation for development

The article is based on a research and development work project (R&D project) conducted in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The purpose of the text is to describe the researchers’ and teachers’ roles during the initial phase of such a project, and what this phase and the close cooperation between the researcher and teachers mean for the progress of the project. The reader will see how the participating teachers modify their attitudes to the project throughout the start-up phase. This phase is outlined by means of empirical data. The study shows how such a project challenges the researchers’ communicative, social and knowledge competence. Furthermore, teachers have to see the need for development and willingly participate in developmental processes, listening to and using researchers as resource persons, if a start-up phase is to be successful for subsequent development in the project.     

A review of the empirical generations at work research: implications for school leaders and future research

Most schools currently employ three generations of teachers and leaders: Baby Boomers (1946–65), Generation X (1966–80) and Generation Y (1981–2003). However, the implications for school leaders of multi-generational schools remain relatively unexplored. This paper examines the empirical multi-disciplinary generations at work evidence to identify differences and similarities in how generational cohorts approach work/life balance, authority, collaboration and careers. The paper defines generational characteristics and introduces the review methods employed. The findings are organised within three important leadership actions: stimulating professional growth and capacity, building collaborative cultures, and establishing work conditions. The conclusion presents future research directions.     

Raising aspirations within school communities: the Learning Catalysts project

This article accounts for a project that rests on a collaboration between the Leadership for Learning group at the Faculty of Education and the county council in King's Lynn and West Norfolk to address a concern regarding the low aspirations in the community. At the heart of the project was the development of a cadre of ‘Learning Catalysts’ who work with schools and with parents to raise aspirations. The project pursued questions such as: What do we really understand about the way aspirations are shaped and play out in the interface of school and community? How can we gain a deeper insight into the cultures of families and how aspirations about occupational and social identities affect children's performance in school? Of central interest too was the way in which people without formal status in their institutions were able to assume leadership roles. The tension between leadership activity in the community setting and leadership within the formal hierarchies of schools was to prove both a source of data and a continuing challenge.     

基于项目化的课程实践教学

基于项目化的课程实践教学是对传统教学的改革,就基于项目的实践教学的实施、课程计划和组织进行阐述。实践证明,该模式的应用能取得比较好的效果。