Interaction in distance education — a case study: Teaching biology at two rural schools

There are many instances where distance education for children is in a state of upheaval and change. This is particularly true of Australia and, as earlier reports indicate, of Canada. Central planners often have abandoned the old ‘correspondence schools’ and established ‘open access’ centres; central schools have been de‐centralised; correspondence stuthes are offered to children in city schools; isolated children attend ‘classes’ vastly different from their old ‘School of the Air’ classes; etc. Some of these changes are the marks of progress; the quality of other changes is debatable.

This account is that of one country teacher operating in northern South Australia where distance education has now changed to be offered, Statewide, by a series of open access schools and has also been regionalised to be offered at the initiative of Education Department Regional Centres with a broad responsibility for education of children in their region. The article makes no pretence to being considered as ‘international research literature’ — some will question whether or not it is even distance education. It is being published at my request.

The teacher functions in an areaof small country towns 50 km apart and with 500 or so people. Not too much further north, into sparsely‐watered country, the towns are likely to have 50 or so people and are up to 500 km apart!

What the paper does highlight is that there are professional people ‘out there’ who see themselves as having a stake in distance education. Central administrators and those who regard themselves as scholars in distance education are only a part of the personnel in distance education.

Ed.     

Union gives strength: mainstream and special education teachers’ responsibilities in inclusive co-taught classrooms

Co-teaching has gained considerable interest as a means of promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream education. Nowadays, there is a consensus among researchers that co-teaching should provide effective education to all students in a mainstream class. This study aims to explore co-teachers’ attitudes towards co-teaching responsibilities in Greek mainstream classrooms. In particular, it examines co-teachers’ attitudes with regard to their non-class-time (planning and evaluation) and class-time (instruction and behaviour management) responsibilities for students with and without disabilities. Four hundred co-teachers participated in this survey study. Overall, our findings demonstrate that mainstream education teachers and special education teachers disagree about their respective class-time and non-class-time responsibilities, and that their role influences their attitudes towards these responsibilities. The study concludes that the different attitudes of co-teachers towards their responsibilities could hinder the development of a shared approach in teaching students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms.

Union gives strength

Aesop

(ca. 620-564 BC)     

On defining distance education

Four generally accepted definitions of distance education are analysed and from them six components of a comprehensive definition are chosen. The forms of education that are considered to fall within the concept of distance education as outlined are considered from the point of view of choice of medium, institutional type and didactic model. Various forms of education that bear some similarities to distance education but are not to be identified with it are described. The term ‘distance education’ is proposed as the most satisfactory solution to the problem of terminology.

The term ‘distance education’ covers the various forms of study at all levels which are not under the continuous, immediate supervision of tutors present with their students in lecture rooms or on the same premises, but which, nevertheless, benefit from the planning, guidance and tuition of a tutorial organisation.

(Holmberg,1977:9)

Distance education is education which either does not imply the physical presence of the teacher appointed to dispense it in the place where it is received or in which the teacher is present only on occasion or for selected tasks.

(Loi 71.556 du 12 juillet 1971)

Distance teaching/education (Fernunterricht) is a method of imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes which is rationalised by the application of division of labour and organisational principles as well as by the extensive use of technical media, especially for the purpose of reproducing high quality teaching material which makes it possible to instruct great numbers of students at the same time wherever they live. It is an industrialised form of teaching and learning.

(Peters, 1973:206)

Distance teaching may be defined as the family of instructional methods in which the teaching behaviours are executed apart from the learning behaviours, including those that in a contiguous situation would be performed in the learner's presence, so that communication between the teacher and the learner must be facilitated by print, electronic, mechanical or other devices.

(Moore, 1973:664)     

Extension Agents and Conflict Narratives: A Case of Laikipia County,Kenya

Purpose: This work investigated the narratives of development extensionists in relation to natural resource conflict, in order to understand the competing discourses surrounding the wicked problems of natural resource management in Laikipia County, Kenya.

Methodology: Q methodology was used to elicit the conflict narratives present among extension professionals. A concourse of 221 statements were devised from interviews and group discussions with key informants and a final sample of 49 statements was used for the sorting. Thirteen Q-sorts were undertaken with among rural extension professionals from government, non-government, faith-based and private organizations.

Findings: Four factors were elicited from the data, labelled—A: ‘Improved Leadership’; B: ‘Resource-centred conflict’; C: ‘Improved Governance’; and D: ‘Improved Management’.

Practical Implications: Narratives of neo-Malthusianism and pastoral ‘backwardness’ persist among extension professionals in Laikipia, thereby perpetuating the received wisdom of natural resource conflict. However, narratives of the human dimension of conflict are also evident where power, politics and socio-economic inequalities are at the fore of natural resource conflict.

Originality: This work contributes to a growing body of literature interested in the role of extension agents in conflict management. By applying Q methodology, this work has shown that while extension agents are involved in conflict management, their perceptions of these conflicts are subjective and have the potential to exacerbate conflict. Conflict management processes need to explicitly consider the conflicting and overlapping world views of extension agents if they are to act as process facilitators.     

Teaching global climate change to pre-service middle school teachers through inquiry activities

Background Global climate change (GCC) has become one of the most debated socio-scientific issues after an increase in media attention. Recently, there have also been several studies describing students’ and teachers’ alternative conceptions about GCC. Therefore, designing learning environments at the college level that focus on accurate conceptions of GCC has become important in order for pre-service teachers to correct their alternative conceptions. There are, however, a limited number of studies that aim to both increase pre-service teachers’ knowledge about these issues and explore their perceptions of teaching this subject.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of inquiry-based activities on pre-service teachers’ knowledge about GCC and their perceptions of teaching this subject.

Sample The participants were 102 pre-service middle school mathematics and science teachers who were enrolled in an environmental education course.

Design and methods A one group pre-test–post-test design was employed to identify changes after pre-service teachers engaged in a learning unit on GCC. The inquiry-based GCC unit was implemented during the spring semester at a public university in northeastern Turkey. The unit was implemented over seven sessions. Data were collected through two questionnaires: the ‘GCC content questionnaire’ and the ‘perceptions of teaching GCC questionnaire’. Each questionnaire was administered both before and after implementation of the unit. Content questionnaire responses were analyzed using a paired-samples t-test. Responses to the perceptions of teaching questionnaire were analyzed using inductive open coding.

Results Results indicated that after the implementation the pre-service teachers significantly improved their understanding of GCC across all items in the content questionnaire, saw several benefits of and challenges about teaching GCC, and perceived themselves as better prepared to teach about GCC in their future classrooms.

Conclusions Teacher education programs should integrate inquiry-based GCC instruction to increase pre-service teachers’ knowledge as well as their preparedness to teach about this important planetary issue.     

VALUING ACADEMIC RESEARCH: TOWARDS A POLICY FOR HONG KONG'S FUTURE UNIVERSITIES

This article makes a preliminary assessment of the general strategies required to foster and evaluate research and scholarship in Hongkong's higher education sector.

It is particularly concerned with the means to be used in the measurement of research productivity in the ‘emerging universities’, namely the two Polytechnics and the Baptist College.

In recent years a number of Polytechnic‐style institutions in Australia have undergone a process of ‘becoming universities’ and It Is proposed that Hongkong may be able to learn from their experience.

An Important focus in this paper Is on the development of equitable and realistic indices of performance that will be accepted by academic and administrative staff In calculating the merit and worth of their efforts in relation to research — which for a number of Polytechnic and College staff has not been a significant aspect of their overall academic role.     

The challenges of setting up the evaluation of extension systems by using a systems approach: the case of Greece,Italy and Slovenia

Purpose: Considering current debates on ecosystem services’ effectiveness and the AIS/AKIS functioning, in this study we suggest a new, systemic way to evaluate extension systems (ESs). Using this model, we compared the effectiveness of ESs in three countries with essential differences but also characteristic similarities in their agricultural sectors: Greece, Italy and Slovenia.

Design/methodology/approach: Initially, we defined ‘extension system’ as a wide range of actors integrating resources with the aim of co-producing value (not for but with) farmers. To capture the value flow within this constellation of actors we distinguished between the notion of ‘value in production’ – i.e. the value embodied in service offerings – and the value emanating when service content is used in real settings or ‘value in use.’

Findings: Our approach revealed that, despite their structural and organizational differences, the ES in the three countries share common problems arising from a limited focus on the issue of value in use.

Practical implications: The application of a systemic approach – seeing farmers as co-creators and not as end-users of extension services – in the evaluation of ESs contributes to better understand the complexity of value flow within the system and can strengthen extension systems’ effectiveness.

Theoretical implications: The present study, by reconsidering traditional evaluation approaches and by focusing on value co-production, offers an alternative value-centric framework for the conceptualization of extension services and points out to the need for refining the evaluation criteria of ESs.

Originality/value: Our work, by emphasizing the reciprocal creation of value within ESs, and by adding the concept of value in use, offers a new systems approach worth considering when evaluating ESs within different organizational and sociocultural contexts.     

Teaching Future Crop Protection Practitioners through the Use of On-line Cases: Practicing IPM Spray Decisions in New Zealand Apple Orchards

Purpose: There are many complexities to be considered when selecting tactical control options in crops grown under an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) regime. Students being trained in IPM are made aware of this complexity but do not always get the chance to experience IPM decision-making first-hand. This case study describes a web-based assessment and presents student feedback as to its value.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Students are required to analyse the pest and disease status of and provide pesticide recommendations for an export apple orchard at four different times of the season. At each ‘virtual visit’ they are required to interpret monitoring data and make spray decisions. The students are provided with the same IPM information and guidelines commercial growers receive. Amongst other things, management history, non-target organisms, pesticide resistance risk, allowable residues, pesticide restrictions and pesticide compatibility must be considered. Student reflections (n = 57) from three years of use were assessed using grounded theory analysis and reported.

Findings: Students found they gained an appreciation of the various factors that need to be considered for tactical IPM and that the exercise helped prepare them for this task ‘in real life’.

Practical Implications: The assessment described can be used as a template for an online integrated case-based training strategy which provides the opportunity for real-life decision making in a safe environment.

Originality/Value: The paper is original. It is hoped this case study will serve as a source of ideas and/or inspiration from those wishing to employ similar ‘active learning’ web-based exercises for agricultural education or extension training.     

The Occupational Motivation,Satisfaction and Health of English School Teachers

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a study of a sample of 609 English teachers and school executive (headteachers, deputies, etc.). The study sought to examine and benchmark teachers’ occupational motivation, satisfaction and health and to test a model of teacher satisfaction developed in Australia in a previous research phase.

English teachers were found, in common with their Australian counterparts, to be motivated most strongly by altruism, affiliation and personal growth. They were also found, again like Australian teachers, to be most satisfied with ‘core business’ aspects of teaching‐‐facilitating student learning and achievement, developing as a professional and working with other staff; and the least satisfied with matters from systemic and societal levels‐‐the nature and pace of educational change, and the status and image of teaching. Between these two domains lay factors specific to particular schools: school leadership and communication, school resources and relationships with community.

Teachers from different types of schools and those holding different promotion positions were found to differ on some measures of satisfaction; however, unlike Australian principals, headteachers were found to be, on the whole, no more satisfied than their classroom teacher colleagues and to be similarly ‘stressed’. These findings are interpreted in the light of the specific context of the English education system.     

Alternative education on Prince Edward Island: a hybrid of ‘mainstream’ and special education

Alternative education programmes have acted as a disciplinary practice used by schools in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, as a response to providing students, especially those identified with challenging behaviours, who do not fit into ‘mainstream’ schools.

This article highlights the emergence of alternative education in PEI and brings to light the complexities underpinning how a child with challenging behaviour is viewed. Through the use of Foucauldian genealogical analysis and critical discourse analysis, this research centres on the discourse of ‘alternative education’ and problematises how alternative education programmes have been put in place as a solution to the problem of the child with challenging behaviour in ‘mainstream’ schools as constituted in the 1990s in PEI, Canada.

Using data generated from educational policies, government documents, and interviews with educators who worked in alternative placements and practitioners who worked with students identified as having problematic behaviour, I propose that alternative education programmes are hybrid programmes emerging from an overlapping of understanding from ‘mainstream’ education and ‘special education’.     

Determining the factors that influence parents’ views about science and technology

Background: Children generally adopt the behaviours and attitudes they see in their home environment. Because of this, education provided in the school can be effective, as long as it is supported at home and by extension to the entire environment where the child interacts. Isolating the family from school influences the continuance of the school’s educational impact. In this sense, families do have a significant impact on their child’s attitude about.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to determine how parents view science and technology, the factors that influence their views (gender, age, educational level), and the relationship between these opinions and the students’ science academic achievement.

Sample: The present study was conducted with the parents of 169 students attending randomly chosen primary schools in a city in western Turkey.

Design and methods: The ‘Scale for Determining Views of Parents regarding Science and Technology’ (SFDVPAST) was developed by the researchers and used in the present study. The scale’s reliability was 0.88. Data obtained from SFDVPAST were analysed with SPSS 11.5 using frequency (f), percentage (%), average (X), standard deviation (SD), one-way MANOVA, a univariate ANOVA for each dependent variable as a tracking test, and simple linear regression analysis to determine the relationships.

Results: At the completion of this study, findings indicated that gender does not have an impact on how parents view science and technology, but age and educational level do impact parents’ views on this topic. The science academic achievement of the student correlates with the views of his/her parents on science and technology.

Conclusions: Parents’ views towards science and technology have affected their age and education level, but have not affected their sex. In addition, parents’ positive view towards science and technology has affected their science academic achievement of the students.     

Historical and Sociological Perspectives of the Contemporary Kindergarten in the USA

Kindergarten education in the US has a rich heritage. The roots date back to the influence of Froebel with an emphasis on play and to Susan Blow and her concern for the whole child. Comenius regarded early childhood and kindergarten as an inseparable part of education and society as a whole rather than a separate entity. His belief parallels the contemporary approach to kindergarten, as it is increasingly being viewed on a continuum in the educational process.

Significant societal and educational changes in the US during the last two decades have influenced kindergarten education for five‐year‐olds. The American family structure has been effected by the increased divorce rate, the economy, and the increase in two‐employed parents.

Education changes include a shift to an emphasis on standardised testing at all levels, accountability, and the incorporation of four‐year‐olds in public schools. The result has been a ‘spiraling down’ of academic expectations.

In addition, schools are responding to the needs of demographic shifts in the nature of the population. Increasing numbers of children have multicultural backgrounds and English in their second language.

These societal and educational changes have precipitated the movement to the all day kindergarten. As more and more schools offer an all day experience to kindergarten children, numerous issues surface that challenge the original purpose of kindergarten. Entrance age, screening practices, retention, commercial books and materials are all influencing the nature of the all day kindergarten.

The current focus in the US on developmental appropriate practice places the emphasis on child‐centred programs that utilise hands‐ on learning and attention to the development of the whole child. A strong parent education and involvement component, a rich environment, and a qualified teacher are components of a quality kindergarten program. These issues and trends will be discussed within the context of the historical perspective of kindergarten education. The results of a current and thorough literature review will be shared with participants.     

Effectiveness of Coaching Socially Withdrawn/Isolated Children in Specific Social Skills

Ladd demonstrated the effectiveness of the social learning method for increasing social interactive behaviour of ‘mildly’ withdrawn/isolated children with their peers. The present study replicated Ladd's investigation with two important differences:

1. the subjects were ‘severely’ withdrawn/isolated children, and

2. the training sessions, unlike Ladd's fixed time schedule, continued until the subject's level of performance reached the level of ‘average’ peers in each targeted social skill.

The findings indicated that the social learning method increased social interaction of ‘severely’ withdrawn/isolated children with their peers. However increasing their rate of behaviour in targeted social skills to the level of performance of their ‘average’ peers required approximately four times as many sessions of training as Ladd conducted with ‘mildly’ withdrawn/isolated children.     

Rhetorical meta-language to promote the development of students’ writing skills and subject matter understanding

Background: Feedback is one of the most significant factors for students’ development of writing skills. For feedback to be successful, however, students and teachers need a common language – a meta-language – for discussing texts. Not least because in science education such a meta-language might contribute to improve writing training and feedback-giving.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore students’ perception of teachers’ feedback given on their texts in two genres, and to suggest how writing training and feedback-giving could become more efficient.

Sample: In this study were included 44 degree project students in biology and molecular biology, and 21 supervising teachers at a Swedish university.

Design and methods: The study concerned students’ writing about their degree projects in two genres: scientific writing and popular science writing. The data consisted of documented teacher feedback on the students’ popular science texts. It also included students’ and teachers’ answers to questionnaires about writing and feedback. All data were collected during the spring of 2012. Teachers’ feedback, actual and recalled – by students and teachers, respectively – was analysed and compared using the so-called Canons of rhetoric.

Results: While the teachers recalled the given feedback as mainly positive, most students recalled only negative feedback. According to the teachers, suggested improvements concerned firstly the content, and secondly the structure of the text. In contrast, the students mentioned language style first, followed by content.

Conclusions: The disagreement between students and teachers regarding how and what feedback was given on the students texts confirm the need of improved strategies for writing training and feedback-giving in science education. We suggest that the rhetorical meta-language might play a crucial role in overcoming the difficulties observed in this study. We also discuss how training of writing skills may contribute to students’ understanding of their subject matter.     

Understanding argumentation about socio-scientific issues on energy: a quantitative study with primary pre-service teachers in Spain

Background Argumentation is an important discourse process in science that needs to be taught and learned as part of a repertoire of strategies to support the acquisition of scientific literacy. Research in science education indicates that beliefs or perceptions and the epistemological orientations of teachers influence their approaches to science teaching.

Purpose The paper aims to illustrate primary pre-service teachers’ understanding of argumentation based on a study using quantitative methodology. In particular, it aims to illustrate how these teachers view quality of arguments and teaching strategies related to argumentation in the context of a socio-scientific issue on energy.

Sample 332 pre-service teachers enrolled in a university teacher education programme in Spain were investigated. Many studies on argumentation have been conducted with small sample sizes of teachers. Hence, given the sample size, the study provides findings that are likely to be generalisable.

Design and methods A questionnaire was administered to the participants. The design of the questionnaire was guided by some existing analytical tools which were adapted for primary education purposes in the context of socio-scientific issues. This adaptation is novel in that the questionnaire items can potentially be used as diagnostic questions to assess primary teachers’ understanding of argumentation.

Results The results suggest that pre-service teachers had difficulty in understanding arguments and different pedagogical strategies to promote argumentation in classroom. For example, they did not understand the role and the meaning of warrants in scientific arguments and their understanding of the use of different kind of strategies is limited to debates, open discussions and experiments. The age range of the participants and the length of teaching experience had no impact on the quality of their understanding of argumentation.

Conclusions Pre-service science teacher education will benefit from incorporation of more robust and lengthy sessions on argumentation. For example, sessions could focus on quality as well as structure of arguments in science and more diverse pedagogical strategies to support argumentation in science lessons, such as the use of writing frames and presentations.     

Assessing pre-service science teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through observations and lesson plans

Background: Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is critical for effective teaching with technology. However, generally science teacher education programs do not help pre-service teachers develop TPACK.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess pre-service science teachers' TPACK over a semester-long Science Methods.

Sample: Twenty-seven pre-service science teachers took the course toward the end of their four-year teacher education program.

Design and method: The study employed the case study methodology. Lesson plans and microteaching observations were used as data collection tools. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-based lesson plan assessment instrument (TPACK-LpAI) and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Observation Protocol (TPACK-OP) were used to analyze data obtained from observations and lesson plans.

Results: The results showed that the TPACK-focused Science Methods course had an impact on pre-service teachers’ TPACK to varying degrees. Most importantly, the course helped teachers gain knowledge of effective usage of educational technology tools.

Conclusion: Teacher education programs should provide opportunities to pre-service teachers to develop their TPACK so that they can effectively integrate technology into their teaching.     

Students’ knowledge acquisition and ability to apply knowledge into different science contexts in two different independent learning settings

Background: Recently, there is a growing interest in independent learning approaches globally. This is, at least in part, due to an increased demand for so-called ‘21st century skills’ and the potential of independent learning to improve student skills to better prepare them for the future.

Purpose: This paper reports a study that explored the effectiveness of two different independent learning approaches: (i) guided independent learning and (ii) unguided independent learning with independent research, in enabling students in an undergraduate Macromolecules course to acquire knowledge in one chemistry context and apply it successfully in another.

Sample: The study involved 144 chemistry students commencing their first term of undergraduate study at a northern university in England. Students completed pre- and post-intervention tests containing 10 diagnostic questions, of which 4 measured students’ knowledge acquisition in one context and 6 measured their ability to apply it in another.

Design and methods: Diagnostic questions had been identified using a Delphi approach. Paired t-tests and chi-square tests were used to analyse the significance of any change in students’ responses to the diagnostic questions and the number of responses evidencing misconceptions, respectively.

Results: Whilst guided independent learning settings were found to improve students’ knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge in novel situations, unguided independent learning had no statistically significant effect. Unguided independent learning was also linked to a statistically significant increase in the number of student misconceptions in one of the diagnostic questions.

Conclusions: The results of this study show that guidance in independent learning activities is a key necessity for effective learning in higher education. This paper has strong relevance and high significance to tertiary STEM education, especially in the light of increased importance of teaching, such as the Teaching Excellence Framework in the UK, and shifts to more independent learning activities.