Professional learning in higher education: making good practice relevant

Professionals working in a range of contexts are increasingly expected to engage in ongoing professional learning to maintain their skills and develop their practices. In this paper, I focus on professional learning in Higher Education and challenge the standardisation of professional learning that is becoming prevalent in a number of countries. I argue that professional learning must challenge accepted wisdom, and that this is possible while still adhering to the standards required for professional legitimacy. Developing praxis is suggested as a way of producing relevant and active professional learners while still addressing the professional standards required for quality assurance.     

关于德育教育渗透于英语课堂的实践与探究

随着教育改革的不断深入开展,教育教学更加注重德育教育,只有先教会学生如何做人,才能教会学生学好科学文化知识。语言是民族或国家的标志性象征,更是一种社会文化,因而在语言课堂教学中加强德育教育更具必要性。     

Conceptual change research and science education practice: a response from educators

We discuss the eight papers in this issue of Cultural Studies of Science Education focusing on the debate over conceptual change in science education and explore the issues that have emerged for us as we consider how conceptual change research relates to our practice as science educators. In presenting our interpretations of this research, we consider the role of participants in the research process and contextual factors in conducting research on science conceptions, and draw implications for the teaching of science.

Field-based preservice teacher research: Facilitating reflective professional practice

Preservice teachers enrolled in a middle level endorsement block provided evidence of their professional, affective, and collaborative dispositions as they reflected upon their conception of early adolescents, appropriate instruction practice, and the empowerment of teachers and students. Research indicates that empowering future teachers as reflective professionals requires teacher education programmes to structure learning experiences that model reflective practice and facilitate the development of engaged learning communities. Through case study research this group of preservice teachers was able to gain a contextual understanding of early adolescents that not only impacted their perception and understanding of the target age group but also allowed them to negotiate their preconceptions, the theoretical understanding presented in their course work, and the authentic observations in the middle school classroom.     

Traveling with and through your backpack: a personal reflection on the infrastructure of science education

In this paper I respond to Ajay Sharma’s Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A case study from India, by speaking to two aspects of the bricoleur: the subject and the discursive in relation to pedagogic perspective. I highlight that our subjectivities are negotiated based on the desires of the similar and competing discourses we are exposed to, and the political powers they hold in society. As (science) teachers we modify our practices based upon our own internal arbitrations with discourses. I agree with Sharma that as teachers we are discursively produced, however, I suggest that what is missing in the discussion of his paper is the historically socially constructed nature of science or science education itself. I advocate that science education is not neutral, objective or unproblematic. Building on Gill and Levidow’s (Anti-racist science teaching, 1987) critique, it is precisely because we are socially constructed by the dominant hegemonic science education discourse that we rarely articulate the underlying political or economic priorities of science; science’s appropriation of other cultural ways of knowing; the way science theory has been, or is used to justify the oppression of peoples for political gain; the central role science and technology play in the defensive, economic and political agendas of nations and multinational corporations who fund science; the historical, and contemporary role science plays in rationalizing an exploitative ideological perspective towards the more-than-human world and the natural environment; and finally, the alienating effect science has on students when used as a ranking and sorting mechanism by educational systems. Therefore, we need to do what Mr. Raghuvanshi could not imagine: we need to destabilize the foundations of science education by questioning inherent structural and ideological inequities.

State of rhetoric: neoliberal discourses for education in state of the state addresses and gubernatorial press releases

ABSTRACT

Policy elites use rhetoric in speeches and press releases to provide framing that is intended to influence public opinion. These rhetorical events can be treated as instances in which speech usefully promotes particular discourses. Indeed, elected officials are able to influence how individuals think about problems and solutions through speeches and press releases. Two important rhetorical events in which political elites advance frames for social issues are annual state of the state addresses (SoSA) given by U.S. governors and gubernatorial press releases that inform media reporting about state policy. This study employed policy discourse and rhetorical analyses to examine SoSAs and press releases as rhetorical events within the context of educational policy. Our findings show that governors framed the roles of state government, governors, and educational stakeholders within a discourse that perpetuates a neoliberal version of education. In this framing, governors situated education’s purpose as being workforce and economic development, ignoring its role in addressing social issues and preparing informed, engaged participants for democratic society. Given that individuals make decisions about how to address social issues and understand public institutions based on framing provided by political elites, these findings raise implications for state educational policies and the public purposes of education.     

谈比较音乐教育学理论与实际应用

比较音乐教育学是教育领域内正在兴起和形成的一门边缘学科，它是以比较法为主要方法，研究当代世界各国音乐教育的一般规律与特殊规律，以揭示教育的主要因素及其相互关系，探索未来音乐教育趋势的一门学科。     

Hidden voices in higher education: inclusive policies and practices in social science and law classrooms

This paper pertains to a broader biographical-narrative research project which studies barriers and support as identified by students with disabilities at a Spanish University (Barriers and Support That Disabled Students Identify in the University. Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Dir. Dr Anabel Moriña; Ref. EDU 2010–16264, 2010–2014)). The present study focuses specifically on barriers and support identified by students with disabilities enrolled in undergraduate programmes in the Social Sciences and Law. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, from the point of view of disabled students (applying the biographic-narrative methodology), which barriers and which support this group encounters in Higher Education. To this end, findings are organised in the following categories: general institutional data; infrastructure, architectural and accessibility-related data; faculty and teaching-related data; data relating to fellow students; and suggestions for improving the university and/or university classrooms. In the Conclusions section, we return to our earlier discussion of key findings which shed some light on how the University helps or hinders learning among participants in the study. From this perspective, taking as a reference the social model of disability, we conclude that in order to be inclusive, the University needs to commit itself to adopting proactive measures that eliminate the barriers that do not permit the learning and the full participation of the students in question.     

Doing phenomenology in science education: a research review

This article is a review of applications of phenomenology, as a philosophy of knowledge and qualitative research approach, to the field of science education (SE). The purpose is to give an overview of work that has been done as well as to assess it and discuss its possibilities of future development. We ask: what attempts for connecting phenomenology and SE do we find in the research literature, and what possible effects could such connections have for teaching and learning? In approaching this field we distinguish between three sources of phenomenological SE: (1) Goethe’s phenomenology of nature; (2) philosophical phenomenology; and (3) anthropological phenomenology. Existing research based on phenomenological approaches is categorised as phenomenology of SE, phenomenology in SE, and phenomenology and SE integrated. Research examples from each category are critically evaluated and discussed. Finally we discuss the question of the relevance of phenomenology to science teaching. Our review indicates that phenomenology has considerable potential as a method for investigating science learning as a holistic process. It also seems that phenomenology and SE meet most fruitfully when phenomenology is done in the classroom, that is, when it is turned into actual efforts for promoting learning.     

Aesthetic experiences in the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna): contributions to environmental education practice and research

In this paper, we reflect on a study in Brazil’s Cerrado that attempts to address a lack of attention to an aesthetic dimension in environmental education practice and research. We start by tracing this lack to the overvaluing of the cognitive sphere in the educational process, noting its echo in the low aesthetic value attributed to the Cerrado biome. Then, through reflecting on an empirical, interview based study of sensations, perceptions and feelings evoked by aesthetic experiences in the Cerrado, we draw on insights from a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to identify key themes for environmental education research and practice in this regard. These include: recognising the singularity of experience; attending to the qualities of experience; acknowledging the value/s of ‘lighter’ and ‘darker’ experiences; and deepening emotions and verbal communication. In our final considerations, we discuss the limitations of the study, alongside new directions in studies of perception, experience, aesthetics and pedagogy that may also advance attention to an aesthetic dimension in environmental education practice and research.     

高中理科实验班化学开放式教学模式的探索与实践

本文论述了笔者为打破传统的师讲生听，师问生答的被动教育模式而采取的利用学生个性发展的开放式现代教育模式。阐述了笔者在新形势下对高中理科实验班实施开放式教学的一些有益的探讨和实践，以培养适应未来社会的创新型，复合型人才。     

(Re)considering Foucault for science education research: considerations of truth,power and governance

This article is a response to Anna Danielsonn, Maria Berge, and Malena Lidar’s paper, “Knowledge and power in the technology classroom: a framework for studying teachers and students in action”, and an appeal to science educators of all epistemological orientations to (re)consider the work of Michel Foucault for research in science education. Although this essay does not come close to outlining the importance of Foucault’s work for science education, it does present a lesser-known side of Foucault as an anti-polemical, realist, modern philosopher interested in the way objective knowledge is entangled with governance in modernity. This latter point is important for science educators, as it is the intersection of objective knowledge and institutional imperatives that characterizes the field(s) of science education. Considering the lack of engagement with philosophy and social theory in science education, this paper offers one of many possible readings of Foucault (we as authors have also published different readings of Foucault) in order to engage crucial questions related to truth, power, governance, discourse, ethics and education.     

Time to participate: Lessons from the literature for learning and teaching project evaluation in higher education

Evaluation plays an increasingly important role in the quality-driven context of higher education. Projects that focus on learning and teaching often have evaluation expected of them, however, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of approaches nor the extent to which the praxis of evaluation is achieved. To illustrate this phenomenon, project funding and evaluation expectations are reviewed and the resulting analysis of the literature identifies eight emergent themes. Two overarching factors that unite these themes are time (or lack of it) and participation, leading to six issues for evaluation practice. Alignment of evaluation theory with practice requires focused attention if the maximum benefits of evaluation for the project processes are to be achieved.     

Expanding the conversation: further explorations into Indigenous environmental science education theory, research, and practice

Indigenous environmental science education is a diverse, dynamic, and rapidly expanding field of research, theory, and practice. This article highlights, challenges, and expands upon key areas of discussion presented by Mack et al. (Cult Stud Sci Educ 7, 2012) as part of the forum on their article Effective Practices for Creating Transformative Informal Science Education Programs Grounded in Native Ways of Knowing. Key topics discussed include the integration of Western and Indigenous knowledge in educational programs, embodied approaches to Indigenous research, and further examples of practice from Canada and other regions of the world.