Impacts of Learning Standards and Testing on Gifted Learners in STEM Schools: A Multilevel Analytic Induction

This article shares findings from a multilevel analytic induction of administrators, teachers, and gifted students within specialized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools about their beliefs regarding the role of standards and standardized tests in the education of gifted learners. Sharing results from a cross-case analysis of six schools, we explore the ways in which student experiences of standards-based learning differ from the perceptions of their teachers and school administrators. We found that there is no consensus across administrators, teachers, and students regarding the impact that standards have in the educational process or on outcomes within specialized STEM schools, though all community members value and seek to create deep learning opportunities for students.     

Artistic Ways of Knowing in Gifted Education: Encouraging Every Student to Think Like an Artist

After decades of fluctuating presence in gifted education, the arts are surprisingly establishing themselves in academic classrooms, spurred by arts integration with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula or science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). This renewed interest provides the opportunity to recognize the artistic process as an effective way to deepen and enlarge the scope of academic content. Teachers can readily identify potentially talented students in their classrooms who immerse themselves in arts activities. Students in every classroom, if provided with substantive arts integrated curricula, can learn to perceive with discrimination, metaperceptively mold creative interpretations, and communicate these performances/products expressively to others with insightful critiques. Artistic ways of knowing mirror the artistic process and provide the opportunity for every student in every classroom to think like an artist.     

Culturally Relevant STEM Out-of-School Time: A Rationale to Support Gifted Girls of Color

Gifted girls of color represent a potentially untapped resource for increasing and sustaining a diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Girls of color possess unique mathematics and science gifts and talents that can remain unrealized if not addressed before middle school. Culturally responsive STEM out-of-school-time (OST) activities can be an effective means to develop STEM capacity in gifted girls of color. The researchers present three considerations to support the implementation of STEM OST. First, they offer a rationale for culturally relevant STEM enrichment activities for gifted girls of color. Next, the researchers consider how culturally relevant STEM OST activities can help to close the achievement gap. Finally, they explain how professional mentorship opportunities within OST activities can help gifted girls of color navigate the STEM pipeline.     

美国STEM教育探析及其对我国中学物理教育改革的启示

1986年,美国提出了STEM教育,在美国各界力量的支持和帮助下,STEM教育经过了三十余年的发展,形成了系统性的协调机制和法律政策,在培养学生科学素养、综合能力等方面取得了良好的成效。本文通过分析美国STEM教育的特点,得出对我国中学物理改革带来的启示。     

Connecting and Creating for Learning: Integrating Subject Matter Across the Curriculum and the School

In this article, the authors explore a growing awareness of problems and current developments in classroom and schoolwide research on subject matter integration. Schwab's four common places—including the learner, the teacher, the content, and the context—provide a framework for examining subject matter integration from a language arts perspective. Two lines of classroom-based research are examined that were conducted in response to the lack of integration within the curriculum: Explanation and Responsive Elaboration in Reading and Cognitive Strategies in Writing. As a result of these two lines of research, researchers became more aware of the importance of understanding the complexity of integrating process into content within the context of the classroom and the school. A major shift toward schoolwide integration in two Professional Development School settings is described that was created in response to these research findings. Teachers and researchers within specific contexts generated and implemented integrated instruction and curriculum content collaboratively. The authors conclude with emerging questions and principles for stimulating thinking among teachers and researchers who work toward furthering understanding of language and subject matter integration within specific contexts.     

Innovative Arts Programs Require Innovative Partnerships: A Case Study of STEAM Partnering between an Art Gallery and a Natural History Museum

ABSTRACT

The arts animate learning because they are inherently experiential and because of their potential to develop creative and critical thinking skills in students. These same skills are valued in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, but the arts have not been consistently included in STEM lessons. We transformed our STEM programming into STEAM programming (STEM plus arts) by creating an innovative partnership between two informal learning environments, the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery and the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History at Southern Utah University. The partnership resulted in a STEAM learning program that integrated art and science for K-12 students. We incorporated an art exhibition, a hands-on lesson in art, and an immersive lesson in science that culminated in a student project that merged concepts from both art and science. Through programs each fall from 2012 through 2014, we helped over 6,000 students from southern Utah use concepts from art to deepen their understanding of caterpillar defenses, fish ecomorphology, and pollinator biology.     

Exploring the Efficacy of The Word Within the Word for Gifted and Typically Developing Students

An exploratory study of the efficacy of The Word Within the Word tested students’ abilities to recognize, use, and recall vocabulary. Ten middle school teachers and their 493 students participated. Five teachers used The Word Within the Word, and five used traditional vocabulary materials. Students completed an out-of-level sentence completion test and a test of prompted vocabulary recall. Analysis of sentence completion data revealed significant differences with moderate effect sizes, favoring students in The Word Within the Word sixth- and seventh-grade classes. Analysis of prompted vocabulary recall data revealed significant differences with moderate to large effect sizes at all grade levels, favoring The Word Within the Word classes. Results suggest that in this case, both gifted and typically developing students in classrooms using The Word Within the Word were more skilled in vocabulary recognition, use, and recall than students in classrooms using traditional methods of vocabulary instruction.     

Recognizing the Outliers: Behaviors and Tendencies of the Profoundly Gifted Learner in Mixed-Ability Classrooms

This article focuses on (a) distinctions between the profoundly gifted individual and others, and (b) a chart describing tendencies and/or behaviors associated with the profoundly gifted student in common, mixed-ability educational settings. The intent is to provide educators, parents, and policymakers with preliminary awareness about the unique behaviors and tendencies of the profoundly gifted learner in heterogeneous educational settings. Learners with measured IQ scores greater than 3 SD units above the mean are a statistical rarity—outliers—in most educational settings. The current inability of most educators to identify and even minimally address needs leaves these students anxious, frustrated, and otherwise unable to reach their intellectual capacity in the majority of school settings across the country. Focused research and careful attention to the nature and needs of these individuals throughout their lives can contribute substantially to our developing understanding.     

Integrating data in a complex mixed-methods classroom interaction study

Mixed-methods (MM) designs have gained increasing interest in educational research. Still, many studies collect quantitative and qualitative data but report these data separately and do not attempt to integrate them in practice. The aim of this article is to discuss the purposes and processes of integrating qualitative and quantitative data in an MM classroom interaction study. Issues regarding mixing and integration, including how to overcome integration barriers, are discussed. Based on this outline, the study then presents details about the various integration processes adopted in a recent MM study on classroom interaction in Norway. The possibilities and challenges of integration to produce new knowledge and a deeper understanding throughout the research process in classroom studies are illustrated with a specific focus on points of interface. A key issue is whether the new knowledge obtained in an MM study is more than the sum of the individual quantitative and qualitative parts. Using selected questions from the MM alphabet proved a helpful heuristic for guiding the iterative processes of integration and provided richer explanations and an enhanced understanding of the implementation and impact of a complex classroom intervention initiative. The study provides a new methodological contribution to the MM literature by examining the integration processes and challenges faced in a specific study.     

STEM课程校本开发的国际经验与启示

在STEM教育起步阶段,课程选择是教学实践的首要问题。通过文献分析发现,“国家或地方非营利性组织机构”提供的支持或指导型STEM课程、“第三方机构”提供的直接交付型STEM课程以及学校自主开发或与其它组织合作开发的校本开发型STEM课程构成了STEM课程可选择的三种类型。其中,兼具“学生发展立场-学校改革创新-教师专业实践”多重内涵的“校本开发型STEM课程”是办学主体实践智慧的凝结。国际上主要从教育决策、学校发展定位、教师专业发展、课程开发方法和策略等四个方面展开STEM课程校本开发的研究和实践。STEM课程校本开发的国际经验为我国STEM教育起步和发展提供了有益借鉴。     

Science and Technology Education in Slovenian Compulsory Basic School: Possibilities for Gifted Education

The article presents an analytical overview of the science and technology curriculum from the viewpoint of the inclusive approach adopted toward gifted education in Slovenian basic education. The main research question concerns how the current curriculum fits the learning needs of gifted students. For the purposes of the study, 16 compulsory and elective syllabi of science and technology school subjects were identified and qualitatively analyzed, and the role of activity days was examined within the target framework. The results show a rather weak operationalization of recommendations for gifted education in defined learning objectives and standards in the syllabi. Moreover, it was found that elective school subjects in science and technology are poorly represented in students’ overall selection of elective school subjects. In addition, activity days offer numerous possibilities for the implementation of the general recommendations for teaching the gifted.     

高中文理课程应该整合

《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》关于高中取消文理分科的必要性和可行性引起了普遍关注。我们从人的全面发展、学科背景及教育的功能定位分析,提出高中文理课程应该整合的观点。并继而探讨了我国高中文理分科的历史沿革,高中文理课程应该整合的缘由,以期为我国高中文理课程的变革提供一种参考性框架。     

论手工艺行业培训课程体系的构建

课程体系的构建是培训策划的重要环节,其完善程度与培训成效密切相关。鉴于手工艺生产的特殊性,行业对从业者的综合素质要求相对较高,因此也决定了培训工作的重要性。从手工艺行业从业者素质特点的分析入手,对培训课程体系构建原则进行阐述,进而提出课程体系的构成及其相互关系,旨在为行业培训提供有效的参考,同时也为其他行业的培训提供了可资借鉴的思路。     

文学隐喻的"天才"与天才儿童教育

关于天才儿童教育的争论除了源于教育理念本身的差异外,还有一个隐蔽的重要原因,那就是“天才”这个词在我国的社会文化生活中代表了两种截然不同的概念一是文学隐喻的“天才”概念二是专业研究的“天才”概念。两种概念的交叉混用导致人们种种不正确的教育观念和行为,严重阻碍了我国天才儿童教育发展的进程。本文拟对“人人都是天才”、“培养天才”这两个隐喻表达在教育中的错误理解和消极影响进行分析,以澄清“天才”的两种概念及天才儿童教育的专业内涵。     

Moral Frameworks for Leaders of Gifted Programs and Services

Given the complexities of being an educational leader and, specifically, an educational leader of a gifted program or school, should there be a moral guide or framework that can inform the daily practices of leaders within an ever-changing educational context of competing demands? Should leaders of gifted programs employ the same ethos as any leader or by virtue of leading a program of a special interest group, be guided by a different, moral approach? This article posits that leaders of gifted programs and schools should operationalize an integrated approach drawing upon a variety of historical and more current theories of moral reasoning and intuition coupled with theories that draw on distributive, transformational, and situational leadership in order to make their advocacy and leadership more effective.     

吉林省高校本科STEM教育课程建设研究

吉林省高校本科STEM教育课程的发展为我国STEM课程建设提供了分析样本与经验参考.经分析,吉林省32所本科层次高校中仅有13所开设了STEM教育课程,在所开设的STEM教育课程中,课时分配与资源配置存在着不足,此外,学生的学习方式、评价方式创新性不足,STEM教学给予学生的帮助不多.总体来看,吉林省高校本科STEM教...     

高等艺术教育国际交流与合作研究——阿拉木图国立大学美术教育研究初探

阿拉木图国立大学美术教育的课程设置、教学方法与原则、毕业设计与答辩是落实培养目标的重要保证 ,阿拉木图国立大学美术系实行学位改革后 ,经过几年的调整已形成了具有自己特色的艺术教育体系     

Teaching and Learning in STEM Enrichment Spaces: From Doing Math to Thinking Mathematically

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrichment programs can meet the needs of gifted students by providing an intellectual challenge, a motivated peer group, and skilled teachers. In the Saturday Enrichment Program (SEP), 40 students (Grades 4–8) explored challenging math topics not typically taught in their schools. Pre and post questionnaires, video documentation of classes, and field notes indicated that students were less interested in the content of their school math classes after participation in SEP. They also reported that SEP provided a more appropriate pace, challenge, and fun. Analysis of classroom videos revealed four major strategies teachers utilized: (a) fostering of a supportive and collaborative environment, (b) developing the identity of a mathematician, (c) open-ended questions for conceptual exploration, and (d) discovery through play.