浅谈活跃大学生物课堂的方法

近年来随着社会的信息化程度越来越高以及网络对学生生活的冲击,使大学生物课堂对高校学生的吸引力下降。因此如何活跃课堂气氛,使学生对课堂知识的学习变得积极主动成为生物学本科教育面临的主要问题之一。针对这一情况笔者对兰州大学生命科学学院43位教师教授的44门课程进行了调研。将这些教师活跃课堂气氛的手段进行了提炼和总结。本文从活跃课堂气氛对教师自身的要求,如何拉近和学生的距离,课堂提问,分组讨论,利用多媒体和网络资源,利用生活和科研中的例子,利用科学名人的科研趣事等七个方面讨论了活跃大学生物学课堂气氛的方法。     

Civic knowledge and open classroom discussion: explaining tolerance of corruption among 8th-grade students in Latin America

Abstract

The endorsement of anti-corruption norms is a normative assumption in legal systems with freedom of information acts, where citizens are expected to act as monitors of the public service. Tolerance of corruption counteracts this assumption. We studied tolerance of corruption among 8th graders from Latin-American samples of the International Civic and Citizenship Study 2009. We proposed a model where associations between students’ socioeconomic status (SES) and tolerance of corruption are explained by civic knowledge, authoritarianism and open classroom discussion. This model accounted for 36–43% of the variance within schools, and 87–96% of the variance between schools, across six countries. The socioeconomic gap in tolerance of corruption was mainly present between schools. In addition, students with higher civic knowledge were less tolerant of corruption, partially explained by authoritarianism, while open classroom discussion also had indirect associations with tolerance of corruption.     

“Can any fraction be turned into a decimal?” A case study of a mathematical group discussion

This case study examines two days of teacher-led large group discussion in a fifth grade about a mathematical question intended to support student exploration of relationships among fraction and decimal representations and rational numbers. The purpose of the analysis is to illuminate the teacher’s work in supporting student thinking through the use of a mathematical question embedded in a position-driven discussion. The focus is an examination of the ways that the emergence of mathematical ideas is partially shaped by complex interactions among the mathematical contents of the question, the inherent properties of the discourse format and participant structure, and the available computational methods. The teacher’s work is conceptualized in terms of actions and practices that coordinate these diverse tools, in constant response to students’ concurrent use of them. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The classroom observation protocol for socioscientific issue-based instruction: development and implementation of a new research tool

Background: For the past decade, science educators have been exploring the use of Socio-scientific Issues (SSI) as contexts for science teaching and learning, and research indicates that doing so can support significant learning gains. However, research related to how teachers take up the practice of SSI-based instruction is far more limited, due in part to a lack of tools for use in this kind of research.

Purpose: The focus of this research is development and testing of a new classroom observation protocol specifically designed for SSI-based instructional contexts.

Design and methods: Development of this SSI-Observation Protocol (SSI-OP) took place in four distinct phases: review of existing protocols and SSI-based instruction frameworks, writing and revision of protocol items, initial testing of the draft protocol, and soliciting feedback from SSI experts.

Sample: Following the four stages of SSI-OP development, we progressed to a series of field tests. The field tests were conducted with three different samples. The first sample was an experienced (10 + years) high school biology teacher and one of her honors biology classes. The second sample consisted of seven Turkish Pre-service Science Teachers (PST) participating in a science methods course. The third sample included two Thai PST from a field experience course embedded within a teacher education program.

Results: The final version of the protocol addressed five dimensions of SSI-based instructional activities: focus of instruction, teaching moves, role of teacher, role of students, and classroom environment.

Conclusions: The SSI-OP could be used in a variety of ways for research including documentation of current practices, impacts of professional development and/or curricula on teaching practices, and changes in teaching over time. We offer the SSI-OP as a new tool with the potential to contribute to science teacher education and research that may advance the teaching and learning of science through SSI.     

批评语言学的话语分析方法论

批评语言学以系统功能语言学为理论基础,认为语篇的各个层次和各种结构都可能会受到说话者立场、观点、交际意图和社会语境的影响和制约。批评语言学家分析语篇时把各语言形式相联系,特别注意情态、转换、分类、及物等方式所产生的语言功能影响,从而为对大众语篇和其他非文学语篇的批评性分析提供了具体方法和途径。     

Pedagogy in the multimodal classroom: an analysis of the challenges and opportunities for teachers

Contemporary commentary notes that students are frequently ahead of their teachers in their ability to manipulate and be creative with the internet, digital programs, and mobile technology. In this context it is important to ask, ‘What knowledge do teachers need to teach in the contemporary context where texts are elaborately multimodal, constructed not just of print but of image, sound, and movement?’ This paper proposes some signposts to assist teachers with navigating in this environment. Using teachers’ and researchers’ reflections on practices in a diverse range of settings, both primary and secondary, the analysis explicates the challenges that teachers face in this multimodal context and elucidates some ways they can effectively operate within it. In particular, it argues that it is teachers’ expertise as analysts and critics of texts that needs to guide their planning and teaching in this ‘new’ text world.     

Regulating readers' bodies: a discourse analysis of teachers' body talk

In this paper, we report findings from a discourse analysis study of reading instruction in eight primary/elementary school classrooms in the United States. Drawing upon discursive psychology, we specifically examined 96 hours of reading comprehension instruction, with a focus on how teachers talked about the body during the instruction and noted how this gave rise to particular constructions of what it means to be a ‘good’ reader and/or learner. We discuss two patterns from the analysis of our data, including: (1) emphasized versus embedded physical control as essential to being a ‘successful’ reader, and (2), implicit physical control and freedom as essential to literacy learning and to students' identities as readers. We conclude by highlighting implications, with a focus on student identity.     

Examining tensions in the socioscientific issues classroom: Students' border crossings into a new culture of science

In the socioscientific issues (SSI) classroom, students need to cross the border between the subcultures of science (i.e., school science vs. everyday science). Traditional school contexts tend to present science as positivistic knowledge and unshakable truth unaffected by sociocultural factors. In contrast, everyday science, including SSI, is more nuanced, context-based, socially and culturally embedded. Thus, learning in an SSI classroom requires students to make additional efforts to successfully navigate between the subcultures of science. The expected norms located within these two educational contexts can create academic and sociocultural tensions for students. It is therefore necessary to explore the tensions caused these differential norms in order to successfully implement SSI. Through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory, we attempted to identify possible tensions that originate by implementing SSI instruction in a setting where teachers and students are accustomed to traditional lecture-based classroom instruction. One hundred thirty ninth graders at a public middle school located in Seoul, South Korea, participated in SSI programs on genetic modification technology during seven class periods over three to 4 weeks. Data was collected by classroom observation, audio-taping while students participated in various types of discourse, and semistructured interviews. We identified four noteworthy phenomena including intolerance of uncertainty, scientism, a sense of rivalry, and reaching an expedient and easy consensus. By revealing and understanding these tensions and phenomena, we aim to help inform teachers (and teacher educators) recognize instructional clues that can change not only students' epistemological views and attitudes toward science and science classes, but also better navigate the norms of classroom culture.     

英语专业精读课堂教师用语的实证研究

文章以话语分析理论为基础,通过实际的英语课堂教学观察及对收集数据的定量和定性分析,找出目前英语专业精读课堂教学存在的问题及原因,并提出英语教师课堂话语的改进建议与对策,以实现师生间的持续有效沟通,创设交互式课堂情景,激发学生学习英语的主动性。     

Educational reforms,cultural clashes and classroom practices

This article presents an ongoing study of educational policy enactment in Singapore lower primary English classrooms. It explores how teachers react to and interpret educational reforms in their classroom practices against a backdrop of traditional cultural values. Using a prescribed coding scheme, the article presents the instructional organisational patterns and participation structures of the lessons. Through a systematic analysis of the enacted curricula, the paper examines classroom practices as well as teaching and learning activities in Primary 1 (7–8 years) and Primary 2 (8–9 years) English lessons in Singapore. The results suggest that there are cultural clashes between major educational reforms which emphasise independent/critical thinking and ‘Asian values’ which promote respect for authority and conformity.     

Update your status: exploring pre-service teacher identities in an online discussion group

A substantial body of research indicates that a teacher’s identity is an essential aspect of their professional practice. As this body of research grows, researchers have increasingly sought to investigate the nature of pre-service teacher identities. This paper reports on a study that examined identities in the context of a pre-service cohort’s online discussion group. By examining the group, this study attempted to address a gap in research knowledge, as research to this date has been unable to investigate pre-service teacher identities in non-course-endorsed or instructor-occupied spaces. A thematic and quantitative analysis of online postings by and interviews with group members provided an insight into how identities performed and related to one another within the online discussion group. The findings indicate that one category of identities emerged from a commitment to the social expectations and values of the group, whilst another emerged out of a personal resistance towards the social norms of group participation and involvement. This study may be useful for teacher educators deliberating the use of online spaces to support pre-service teacher identity development.     

The interplay of representations and patterns of classroom discourse in science teaching sequences

The purpose of this study is to examines the relationship between the communicative approach of classroom talk and the modes of representations used by science teachers. Based on video data from two physics classrooms in Singapore, a recurring pattern in the relationship was observed as the teaching sequence of a lesson unfolded. It was found that as the mode of representation shifted from enactive (action based) to iconic (image based) to symbolic (language based), there was a concurrent and coordinated shift in the classroom communicative approach from interactive–dialogic to interactive–authoritative to non-interactive–authoritative. Specifically, the shift from enactive to iconic to symbolic representations occurred mainly within the interactive–dialogic approach while the shift towards the interactive–authoritative and non-interactive–authoritative approaches occurred when symbolic modes of representation were used. This concurrent and coordinated shift has implications on how we conceive the use of representations in conjunction with the co-occurring classroom discourse, both theoretically and pedagogically.     

Theoretical triangulation as an approach for revealing the complexity of a classroom discussion

In this paper we explore the value of theoretical triangulation as a methodological approach for the analysis of classroom interaction. We analyze an excerpt of a whole‐class discussion in history from three theoretical perspectives: interactivity of the discourse, conceptual level raising and historical reasoning. We conclude that using theoretical triangulation enables us to relate the perspectives of the teacher, the students and the domain to each other, which provides us with deeper insight into the complex phenomenon of classroom interaction. The analyses reveal the complexities the teacher faces when trying to elicit and promote collaborative knowledge construction and the dilemma of promoting student participation, on the one hand, and deepening the quality of reasoning, on the other.     

网络技术:课堂教学模式的新诠释

计算机网络能使网内的计算机高效、有序、协调地运行，将这种技术原理移植到课堂教学。不仅可以诠释现行的课堂教学模式，而且可以进一步探索对应的课堂教学方法．介绍了网络结构和课堂教学模式的相似处，探究网络技术在课堂教学中的应用．     

Empowering discourse: discourse analysis as method and practice in the sociology classroom

Collaborative learning and critical pedagogy are widely recognized as ‘empowering’ pedagogies for higher education. Yet, the practical implementation of both has a mixed record. The question, then, is: How could collaborative and critical pedagogies be empowered themselves? This paper makes a primarily theoretical case for discourse analysis (DA) as a form of classroom practice that provides a structured framework for collaborative and critical pedagogies in higher education, with a special reference to sociology classroom practice. I develop a tripartite scheme for building a framework for sociological imagination that is, first, sensitive to the discursive aspects of social reality (learning about DA). Second, I illustrate the use of DA as pedagogical tool and classroom practice (learning with DA). Third, I discuss how discourse analytical ideas can be used in evaluating classroom interaction and how these reflexive insights can be used to enhance student empowerment (learning through DA).     

Promoting cognitive and social aspects of inquiry through classroom discourse

We investigated how Chinese physics teachers structured classroom discourse to support the cognitive and social aspects of inquiry-based science learning. Regarding the cognitive aspect, we examined to what extent the cognitive processes underlying the scientific skills and the disciplinary reasoning behind the content knowledge were taught. Regarding the social aspect, we examined how classroom discourse supported student learning in terms of students' opportunities to talk and interaction patterns. Our participants were 17 physics teachers who were actively engaged in teacher education programs in universities and professional development programs in local school districts. We analyzed one lesson video from each participating teacher. The results suggest both promises and challenges. Regarding the cognitive aspect of inquiry, the teachers in general recognized the importance of teaching the cognitive processes and disciplinary reasoning. However, they were less likely to address common intuitive ideas about science concepts and principles. Regarding the social aspect of inquiry, the teachers frequently interacted with students in class. However, it appeared that facilitating conversations among students and prompting students to talk about their own ideas are challenging. We discuss the implications of these findings for teacher education programs and professional development programs in China.