The science literacy gap: A Karplus lecture

The great American experiment in mass higher education has failed completely in the sciences, where we have a small educated elite and an illiterate general public. Our graduate education in science is the best in the world, and contrary to the belief of some, we do not face a future shortage of scientists. However, the rest of our educational system is bad enough to constitute a threat to the ideal of Jeffersonian democracy. The Mechanical Universe, a video series produced by Caltech and aimed at high school physics teachers, is described. Although that project has been very successful, much more must be done. The educational infrastructure must be strengthened to the point where science can be taught gradually, throughout the school years and beyond. Furthermore, those of us who are professional teachers of science must become better teachers, both by increasing our own mastery of our subjects and by better understanding the difficulties our students have in learning science.Robert Karplus Memorial Lecture, Seattle, April 8, 1989     

Authority and Authority Relations in Mathematics Education: A View from an 8th Grade Classroom

Compared to studies in general education, authority has received little attention in mathematics education, despite an increasing interest in sociological perspectives in mathematics classroom research. The subject of authority is particularly important in mathematics education, on the one hand, because of the immense authority mathematics itself seems to possess and pass on to its practitioners, but also, on the other hand, because of the anti-authoritarianism present, to some degree, in many trends in mathematics education such as cooperative learning approaches and constructivist pedagogies. Such an anti-authoritarian stance appears justified by data from an 8th grade mathematics classroom (supplemented with data from a second 8th grade classroom) which suggest that teachers possess immense authority in the eyes of the students and that this and other authority relations are strongly evident in the students non-reflective ways of interacting not only with their teachers but also among themselves. However, theoretical considerations on authority show that the problem may not be authority per se but the way one conceives the notion of authority, that there exist kinds of authority, such as Bennes anthropogogical authority, which can encourage reflective and also fruitful collaborative work.     

Chemical equilibrium and Newton's third law of motion: Ontogeny/phylogeny revisited

Evolution of the concept of chemical equilibrium has been strongly influenced by Newtonian mechanics. Even in the late nineteenth century scientists viewed chemical equilibrium as resulting from, an equality of the contending forces, that is, the forward and the reverse reactions. The main purpose of this article is to show that freshman students conceptualize the rates of the forward and reverse reactions in chemical equilibrium as forces, perhaps in the same sense as used in the evolution of the concept of chemical equilibrium and student misconceptions about Newton's third law of motion. Results obtained show that at least some students consider the forward and reverse reactions as a sort of chemical analogue of Newton's third law of motion. Based on this interpretation, it is plausible to hypothesize that student conceptualization of the forward and reverse reactions as forces is ontogenetically (Piaget & Garcia, 1983) a step towards, the deeper understanding of a dynamic chemical equilibrium, leading to a progressive problemshift (Lakatos, 1970). In spite of the commonalities between psychogenesis and the history of science, it is important to point out that ontogenesis is not an exact and detailed recapitulation of phylogenesis. Results obtained in this study and their interpretation are important, as they help us to anticipate student utilization of Newton's third law in understanding chemical equilibrium, before the dynamic nature of equilibrium is understood.     

Connecting Teacher Beliefs to the Use of Children’s Literature in the Teaching of Mathematics

This article presents examples that illustrate how teachers use childrens literature in the teaching of mathematics. The examples are related to four curriculum ideologies that have influenced mathematics education in the USA for the last 75 years. It discusses why it is relevant to help teachers understand the ideological positions that influence their use of childrens literature during mathematics instruction, summarizes the four ideological positions, and presents results of a study of how teachers ideological positions relate to their use of childrens literature in the teaching of mathematics. The study examines two research questionsCan an instructional tool be developed that will highlight for teachers the different ways in which they and others use childrens literature to teach mathematics? and Can that instructional tool stimulate teacher discussion and reflection about their own beliefs and the ideological nature of the instructional environment in which they learned (as students) and teach (as teachers)? Study results indicate that both questions can be answered in the affirmative.     

New reality in university-industry relations: A search for foundations and forms

This paper examines changes in the economic environment effected by the increasing role of knowledge and technological innovations. The university and its academe are expected, for a variety of reasons, to participate in fostering the process of technological development and increased up-grading of the workforce. The author then analyzes various institutional forms which can facilitate university-industry co-operation. Based on the analyses of trends and organizational premises of enhanced university-industry co-operation, the paper draws attention to the potentially negative implications of excessive entrepreneurial participation of the academe in commercialization of academic work. It also suggests measures—ethical and organizational—which would allow us to avoid such situations and which would put university-industry relations on new foundations.     

A “Thinking Journey” to the Planets Using Scientific Visualization Technologies: Implications to Astronomy Education

We present a novel approach to teaching astronomy and planetary sciences, centered on visual images and simulations of planetary objects. The basic idea of the Thinking Journey concept is to take the students to other celestial objects as tourists, and to teach science through the observatio of various natural phenomena in these new environments. The power of scientific visualization, through still and dynamic images, makes such a journey an exciting learning experience. The introduction of new technologies (3D animations, virtual reality) greatly enhances the visualization capabilities the teacher can use, allowing him to simulate actual flights over the terrain of other planets and to study them as if observing from a spaceship in orbit. The present program focuses on the study of the Moon and of the planet Mars, by means of observation, interpretation, and comparison to planet Earth. Students learn to recognize geological and atmospheric processes, discuss astronomic phenomena, and discover that the same basic physical laws govern all objects in the solar system.     

Use of Computer-Mediated Communication in a Teaching Practicum Course

This study investigates how Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) can be effectively used in a teaching practicum course to enhance preservice teachers learning. We constructed a web-based CMC system and used it in a Teaching Practicum course. Computer science preservice teachers and experienced secondary school computer teachers, who served as mentors, participated in the study. The research findings indicate that the preservice teachers considered the CMC system helpful for supporting their learning. The findings also indicate that some initiating/follow-up discussion styles of the mentors were more effective than others in promoting interactions in the discussion forum. It was also found that a teaching-video-enhanced CMC environment is valuable in improving quality of mentoring and in increasing preservice teachers reflection on teaching.     

“Hispanic” children: Theoretical,empirical, and related policy issues

Not only are school-age ethnic and racial minority children one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population, they are also one of the most vulnerable. Hispanic children in particular are representative of the at-risk status of minority populations, displaying a portrait of unrealized social, educational, and employment success. This paper addresses the background and history of U.S. social and educational policies as they relate to the Hispanic student. Recent empirical findings are presented which support the following: (a) the bilingual character of Hispanic children is not a linguistic, cognitive, or educational liability and, in fact, should be employed to promote academic achievement; (b) the culture of the Hispanic family and child are better understood with regard to socialization variables and the potential differences they produce when directly compared to Anglo culture; and (c) educational strategies for Hispanic students that respect and integrate students' social, psychological, and linguistic attributes serve students effectively.     

High School Students of Color Talk About Accusations of “Acting White”

Fordham and Ogbu (1986) have described fear of acting white as a significant factor that influenced the attitudes and often undermined the achievement of African-American students at Capital High in Washington, D.C. The present qualitative study investigated 38 relatively high-achieving African-American and Mexican-American students in various high schools, public and private, in a midwestern city. The respondents did not report avoiding academic achievement in order to avoid accusations of acting white. Most of the students we interviewed reported no loss of ethnic identity. The students felt strong resentment toward their peers' accusations of acting white and did not seem to be intimidated by the accusations, though they were bothered by the accusations. It would be useful if future research addressed the conditions under which avoidance of acting white is most likely to occur.     

Exploring the Development of Student Teachers’ PCK of the Multiple Meanings of Chemistry Topics

In chemical education, many secondary school students experience difficulties in understanding three mutual related meanings of topics, that is, the macroscopic meaning, the microscopic meaning, and the symbolic meaning. As a consequence, student teachers should be prepared carefully to learn how to teach this difficult issue. This article presents a naturalistic case study of the development of eight student teachers pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of the multiple meanings of chemistry topics. The student teachers (all M.Sc.) participated in a teacher education program of which the initial phase focused on learning from teaching instead of learning of teaching. They were asked individually to choose and teach a chemistry curriculum topic with a focus on the macro-micro-symbolic issue. Research data were obtained by interviewing the student teachers individually before and after the lessons. The outcomes indicated a development of student teachers knowledge of teaching difficulties, for instance, too fast and mainly implicit reasoning between macro- and micro-meaning, and a dominant orientation towards the micro-meaning of topics. A development of knowledge of students difficulties was also indicated, for instance, difficulties in understanding the macro- and micro-meaning of reaction equations. Implications for the follow-up phases of the program are presented.     

Story as a Bridge to Transformation: The Way Beyond Death in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass

In The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman extends the psychological depth of literature for young readers by presenting in palpable terms a confrontation with death met by the human capacity for dealing creatively, through story, with personal mortality. Pullman's portrayal of the power of storytelling is placed within the context of the Platonic tradition and neo-Platonic, 19th-century Romanticism. The co-protagonists' descent into the Land of the Dead, Lyra's freeing of the ghosts by the power of story, and their shared emergence into the sunlit land of the living draws on key elements of 19th-century Romanticism, specifically, the ideas of two poets: Percy Bysshe Shelley's concept of the creative imagination as the instrument of moral good, and John Keats' notion of negative capability and his metaphor of the world as a vale of soul-making. All told, Pullman's fantasy portrays young protagonists transcending the dualism of good and evil and learning to live creatively in the face of life's contradictions, complexities, and, most potently, their own mortality.     

Renewed but not Redeemed: Revising <Emphasis Type="Italic">Elsie Dinsmore</Emphasis>

Elsie Dinsmore, the first book in a late 19th century childrens series, is unique because it had not been adapted, just reprinted, until 1999. It is also unique in the setting, the mythic Southern plantation life of the 1850s. The 1999 edition ameliorated what is now recognized as racist language based on the images of the minstrelsy tradition, though consonant with the views of the time period. However, the deep structure of the story—its dependence on the plantation myth, its belief in the basic inferiority of African Americans, and its acceptance of slavery as compatible with Christianity—is not changed. The new edition is a comment on the publishing industrys disregard of racial history and the importance of context for understanding literature.     

Parent–School Partnership Formation through the School Council in Korea

Official involvement of parents in school education has been very limited until recently within the highly centralized educational administration and school management system in Korea. But, the educational reform in 1995 has brought fundamental changes in educational administration and school management system of Korea. The main approach of the reform is decentralization, which tries to turn over the power of the central government in educational administration and school management to the hands of regional education offices and site schools. According to the reform, the school council was introduced to enforce autonomous and responsible school-based management through broad participation of various stakeholders of education. In this article, I examined the background, roles, and characteristics of the school council, focusing on the new pattern of parent–school participation formation. And based on the findings, I discussed the issues of parents participation and future prospects of the school council and suggested policy implications for better implementation of parent–school partnership through the school council.     

Beauty and Character: Values Beyond Beauty in Architecture

Formalist conceptions of aesthetic goals began to give way from the 17^th century on to rationalist accounts of experience. Beauty as described as essential by Renaissance thinkers was reconceived as just one possibility, with the sublime in Burke's account as another. In the early 20^th century Clive Bell again asserted a formalist position with his argument for significant form. The weakness of the formality position, and the need for a richer, more contextual account of aesthetic goals and experience is argued with reference to the idea of thick and thin concepts as applied by Bernard Williams to ethics, Wittgenstein's attention to the way in which language is used in a specific context, and Scruton's emphasis on an informed conception of the object of aesthetic attention. Beauty, in Alberti's procedural account if not in his version of the Platonic ideal, can be seen to continue to have critical value. The idea of character, however, offers a broader range of possibilities for experience and of goals for design.     

The Tertiary Programming Learning Environment: Is It Equitable?

The computing learning environment has not often been equitable for female students. For example, the number of females enrolled in tertiary computing courses is low compared with males and their retention is poor. In recent years, New Zealand educational institutions have experienced an increased enrolment of new arrivals – students of diverse nationalities, cultures and educational backgrounds. The New Zealand government is encouraging the expansion of education exports, yet little is known about how new-arrival students, studying programming at tertiary institutions, perceive their learning environment and whether they feel comfortable and included. This article reports research which examined how equity is perceived by subgroups based on sex and arrival status. The study used a mixed-method design to investigate first-year tertiary programming students perceptions of their learning environment. Survey results showed that, compared with New Zealand males and new-arrival females, New Zealand females and new-arrival males indicated that they would prefer a more equitable learning environment to the one that they actually experienced. Further, results from student interviews revealed differences amongst the student subgroups, suggesting that there were areas of dissatisfaction not obvious from the survey data.     

Safe Discussions Rather Than First Hand Encounters: Adolescents Examine Racism Through One Historical Fiction Text

summary This article presents a case study class response to Mildred Taylors now classic and widely read novel, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. Through data collected during one school year, the ways urban, adolescent students use their contemporary lenses to interpret the literary theme of confronting, overcoming and challenging racism are discussed. The participants responses are organized into four reader response categories that explicate the complex and interactive interpretations developed by the children while reading the novel. In addition to providing insights about the participants textual understanding, pedagogical findings indicate that the book can also be used to explore the nature of racism while creating a safe space to confront and more deeply understand racisms impact on the past as well as the students current reality.     

Students’ Perceptions of a Problem-Based Learning Environment

During the last decades, traditional learning environments have been criticised for not developing the prerequisites for professional expertise (H. Mandl, H. Gruber &; A. Renkl, Interactive minds: Life-span perspectives on the social foundation of cognition, pp. 394–412, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996; P. Tynjälä, International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 357–442, 1999). To meet this criticism, educational approaches such as problem-based learning, project-based learning and case-based learning are being implemented to an increasing extent. Research also concentrates on the efficiency of these approaches in terms of students’ learning outcomes. At the same time, classroom-based theories of learning (J. B. Biggs, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 3–19, 1993; M. Prosser &; K. Trigwell, Understanding learning and teaching. Buckingham, UK: SRHE and Open University Press, 1999) stress the importance of the investigation of subjective learning environments in order to understand the nature of these students’ learning outcomes, for learning results are not a mere function of the learning setting because each student operates as a filter for the possible influence of the environment. However, most research on students’ perception of the learning environment is conducted in predominantly traditional learning environments.The goal of our research was to investigate students’ perceptions of the key design variables of a problem-based learning environment and if students perceive that they enhance learning. There are four research questions. First, to what extent do students’ perceptions of a PBL environment match the theoretical assumptions of PBL? Second, do their perceptions differ as a function of the institutional context? Third, is there a difference in the perceptions of students between groups of first year and experienced students and between disciplines? Fourth, are there interaction effects between study phase and discipline?The results show that, in general, students value the key variables of the learning environment as powerful (i.e. enhancing learning). Also, the results indicate that students’ perceptions of the learning environment in various institutional contexts differ significantly. In general, no distinctions were found related to students in different study phases. However, in terms of specific design variables, students studying in diverse disciplines showed significantly divergent perceptions. Finally, significant interaction effects were found between study phase and discipline.     

Development and Application of a Two-Tier Diagnostic Test for High School Students’ Understanding of Flowering Plant Growth and Development

This study involved the development and application of a two-tier diagnostic test measuring students understanding of flowering plant growth and development. The instrument development procedure had three general steps: defining the content boundaries of the test, collecting information on students misconceptions, and instrument development. Misconception data were collected from interviews and multiple-choice questions with open response answers. The data were used to develop 13 two-tier multiple-choice items. The conceptual knowledge examined was flowering plant life cycles, reproduction, precondition of germination, plant nutrition, and mechanism for growth and development. The diagnostic instrument was administered to 477 high school students. The correlation coefficient of test-retest was 0.75. Difficulty indices ranged from 0.24 to 0.82, and discrimination indices ranged from 0.32 to 0.65. Results of the Flowering Plant Growth and Development Diagnostic Test suggested that students did not acquire a satisfactory understanding of plant growth and development concepts. Nineteen misconceptions were identified through analysis of the items that could inform biology instruction and resource.