Towards a Framework of Socio-Linguistic Analysis of Science Textbooks: The Greek Case

This study aims at presenting a grid for analysing the way the language employed in Greek school science textbooks tends to project pedagogic messages. These messages are analysed for the different school science subjects (i.e., Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and educational levels (i.e., primary and lower secondary level). The analysis is made using the dimensions of content specialisation (classification) and social-pedagogic relationships (framing) promoted by the language of the school science textbooks as well as the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding linguistic code (formality), thus combining pedagogical and socio-linguistic perspectives. Classification and formality are used to identify the ways science textbooks tend to position students in relation to the interior of the corresponding specialised body of knowledge (i.e., in terms of content and code) while framing is used to identify the ways science textbooks tend to position students as learning subjects within the school science discourse. The results show that the kind of pedagogic messages projected by the textbooks depends mainly on the educational level and not particularly on the specific discipline. As the educational level rises a gradual move towards more specialised forms of scientific knowledge (mainly in terms of code) with a parallel increase in the students' autonomy in accessing the textbook material is noticed. The implications concern the way both students and teachers approach science textbooks as well as the roles they can undertake by internalising the textbooks' pedagogic messages and also the way science textbooks are authored.     

Towards an Analysis of Visual Images in School Science Textbooks and Press Articles about Science and Technology

This paper aims at presenting the application of a grid for the analysis of the pedagogic functions of visual images included in school science textbooks and daily press articles about science and technology. The analysis is made using the dimensions of content specialisation (classification) and social-pedagogic relationships (framing) promoted by the images as well as the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding visual code (formality), thus combining pedagogical and socio-semiotic perspectives. The grid is applied to the analysis of 2819 visual images collected from school science textbooks and another 1630 visual images additionally collected from the press. The results show that the science textbooks in comparison to the press material: a) use ten times more images, b) use more images so as to familiarise their readers with the specialised techno-scientific content and codes, and c) tend to create a sense of higher empowerment for their readers by using the visual mode. Furthermore, as the educational level of the school science textbooks (i.e., from primary to lower secondary level) rises, the content specialisation projected by the visual images and the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding visual code also increases. The above results have implications for the terms and conditions for the effective exploitation of visual material as the educational level rises as well as for the effective incorporation of visual images from press material into science classes.     

Teacher training processes and teachers’ competence—a sociological study in the primary school

The paper describes part of a study whose aim was to investigate the relation between modalities of teacher training and modalities of pedagogic practice implemented in the science classroom. The study is focused on primary school context and analyses the evolution of teachers performance in terms of their acquisition of recognition and realisation rules, i.e. coding orientation, to specific scientific learning contexts.Theoretically, the study is based on Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse [Bernstein, 1990, Class, codes and control: Volume IV, The structuring of pedagogic discourse. London: Routledge; Bernstein, 2000, Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity—theory, research, critique (rev. ed.). New York: Rowman & Littlefield] which provided the concepts to characterise the modalities of teacher training and of classroom pedagogic practices and to analyse teachers’ evolution in terms of recognition and realisation rules. The sample was made up of four teachers and their four socially heterogeneous school classes. An action–research methodology was followed.The results suggest that the teacher training implemented was favourable to the teachers’ professional development and their competence to lead all children to a high level of scientific development. The efficiency of the training process has to be mostly attributed to the strong classification of the researcher–teachers relation and to the strong framing of evaluation criteria, selection and sequence, together with weak framing of hierarchical rules and pacing.     

Engaging with Bourdieu’s theory of practice: an empirical tool for exploring school students’ technology practice

ABSTRACT

This article presents Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a tool for exploring school students’ technology practice in empirical research. The authors provide educational technology researchers with an accessible introduction to the theory of practice. They then detail the conceptual, methodological and analytic application of the theory of practice in two educational technology studies. The application of the theory in the two studies highlights the potential of the sociological framing for informing a robust critical research agenda and understanding the circumstances that can contribute to digital inequalities. Practically, knowledge gained through theoretically informed research is critical for researchers, governments, schools and teachers in working to overcome digital inequalities.     

Current trends and missing links in studies on teacher professional development in science education: a review of design features and quality of research

This review provides an overview of the the current state of research on professional development in science education. An analytical frame was used, based on what is known about PD from educational research. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s model for teacher professional growth was also used to categorise the studies according to their aims and outcomes. Exemplar studies in each category are highlighted. In total, 44 recent studies were selected, all referring to science PD. The results show an increase in the number of PD studies in science education in recent years. Most PD programmes are aimed at enhancing teacher cognitions as well as classroom practice. Most recently, there seems to have been an increase in programmes that also aim at improving student outcomes through PD. All studies applied most of the characteristics drawn from research on what makes PD effective. However, school organisational conditions were not usually taken into account. Moreover, there has been a very little research on the role of facilitators and their impact on the outcomes of a PD programme.     

Does Teacher Education Matter? An Analysis of Relations to Knowledge among Norwegian and Finnish Novice Teachers

This article examines relations to knowledge among novice teachers educated in a research-based program in Finland and a general professional program in Norway. The curricula of the 2 programs differ in distinct ways with regard to selection and organization of knowledge. We ask whether such differences also play out in the relations to knowledge of the 2 groups of teachers. Bernstein's concepts of knowledge discourses, classification, and framing are employed to analyze in-depth interviews with 12 teachers. The analysis revealed many similarities on the surface, but a closer examination of the teachers' use of professional language revealed significant differences. The Finnish teachers used more specialized language to frame their conceptions, and their knowledge relations reflected a stronger classification and framing than those of the Norwegian teachers. We discuss how these differences may be related to their educational programs, and the possible implications for the teachers' professional identities.     

How do teachers interpret and transform entrepreneurship education?

During the last decade, entrepreneurship education has become a central curricular topic in many locations in the world. In Sweden, entrepreneurship education was implemented in the curriculum for the first time in 2011, as something that should be included in all upper secondary school programmes. In this article, we focus on one of these programmes, the handicraft programme, investigating how entrepreneurship education is formulated in the latest curriculum and how teachers understand and transform such content in their teaching. Drawing on Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing, we illustrate how entrepreneurship education in the Swedish curriculum has a ‘dual definition’, representing very different framing and classification, but still clearly belongs in a ‘market relevance’ discourse. This is expressed through the way in which the concept is transformed by teachers in their teaching. We also find that entrepreneurship education has low legitimacy among teachers, particularly when it is classified weakly. The weak framing and classification, taken together with the low legitimacy among teachers, are likely to lead to very different transformations of entrepreneurship education in different educational contexts. In the long run, this could have a negative effect on the equivalence of teaching at upper secondary school.     

Integrating teacher education effectiveness research into educational effectiveness models

The purpose of this article is to review and to connect research about teacher education effectiveness and school effectiveness to arrive at an integrative conceptualization that has the potential of improving empirical research in both fields. Teacher education effectiveness addresses effects of teacher education on outcomes such as teacher knowledge, this knowledge becomes the predictor in teacher effectiveness research with instructional quality and student achievement as outcomes. The two research orientations become united in path-analytic studies. A fuller incorporation leads to an extended educational effectiveness model that enriches a systemic interpretation of key levers of educational effectiveness and opens up black boxes at the system and the classroom level. In such a comprehensive model, teacher policies can be regarded an alternative for educational improvement strategies like school curriculum policies, accountability and evaluation or governance and management. At the same time insights from educational effectiveness research at large suggest inclusion of additional variables in teacher education and teacher effectiveness research, particularly on the institutional level.     

Crossing boundaries: Exploring the theory,practice and possibility of a ‘Future 3’ curriculum

In this article, we examine a case of innovation in curriculum and pedagogy at a new school in the UK. We begin by outlining the 3 Futures model, which we use as a methodological heuristic in the case study of the school that appears to be both knowledge-led and learner-engaged; characteristics of the Future 3 scenario. In considering the school's curriculum, we also draw on a number of concepts from the work of Basil Bernstein: classification, framing and the idea of open schools, and a curriculum integration model developed by us to consider the degree of epistemic emphasis in the school's predominantly interdisciplinary curriculum. Together, these concepts provide the means to examine the organising principles of practice operating in the school, as links are drawn between the 3 Futures model, Bernstein's concepts and the data. We theorise this as a form of ‘opening up’, suggesting that even within the context of an interdisciplinary curriculum, access to powerful knowledge may be maintained in a whole-school approach where the demands of both knowledge and knowers are brought into balance. The school's approach and the theorisation we offer may provide insights for other schools embarking on a futures model for education and for twenty-first-century educational discourses more generally.     

Civic Knowledge,Engagement, and Participation Narratives of Youth of Color in Urban Schools

The issues associated with students’ civic knowledge, engagement, and participation have been heightened in intellectual debates and public discussions. However, these discussions have not focused heavily on urban youths’ civic identities or the locations of these identities within the youths’ personal narratives of ethnicity, race, class, and gender. This article presents the narratives of four urban high school youths of color, selected from a larger study about youths’ experiences in school and society and the ways in which classroom learning encouraged their inquiry, assessment of their social worlds and personal goals, and emerging personal and civic identities. Our purpose was to gain insights regarding the youths’ sociopolitical perspectives on local educational and social issues affecting them and to understand their multiple literacies in the context of their civic engagement, increasing youth advocacy, and larger political tensions. The theoretical framing of this investigation is grounded in democratic education and sociopolitical consciousness and draws upon research that focuses on civic participation and democratic society. Four dominant themes emerged from the analysis: educational inequality, social media, schooling, and race and mass incarceration. This article contributes to an expansive framing for civic education by examining the civic knowledge of urban youths of color and offers implications for research, practice, and policy.     

Curriculum-based teacher professional development in middle school science: A comparison of training focused on cognitive science principles versus content knowledge

This study investigates, through a cluster-randomized trial, the effectiveness of two approaches to increasing middle school students’ science learning using a traditional science curriculum. Ninety schools were randomly assigned into one of three arms: (a) a treatment arm in which the textbook curriculum was modified based on four principles of cognitive science coupled with teacher professional development (PD), (b) a second treatment arm in which teachers received PD designed to improve their knowledge of the science content, and (c) a business-as-usual control group. The PD was able to change teacher practice but barely improved teacher knowledge. No significant boost in student achievement was observed, except in a few instances, where there were some promising findings. Exploratory analyses were conducted to examine what makes the interventions more effective. Implications for future research were discussed.     

Keine Mythen, sondern fundierte Schulreformen

The Finnish education system has received much international attention because Finnish pupils have attained leading positions in the PISA studies. There are both historical and societal reasons for this, but the success is also a clear consequence of school reform and projects to develop school teaching. Following a historical overview, this essay will present the concrete reform initiatives at the educational system level (introduction of community schools) and at subject level (work on the curriculum, mathematics and natural science lessons, promotion of reading competencies, synergy effects and teacher training). The article will conclude with considerations for the future of the Finnish education system.     

An experimental study of a museum-based,science PD programme’s impact on teachers and their students

We present results of an experimental study of an urban, museum-based science teacher PD programme. A total of 125 teachers and 1676 of their students in grades 4–8 were tested at the beginning and end of the school year in which the PD programme took place. Teachers and students were assessed on subject content knowledge and attitudes towards science, along with teacher classroom behaviour. Subject content questions were mostly taken from standardised state tests and literature, with an ‘Explain:’ prompt added to some items. Teachers in the treatment group showed a 7% gain in subject content knowledge over the control group. Students of teachers in the treatment group showed a 4% gain in subject content knowledge over the control group on multiple-choice items and an 11% gain on the constructed response items. There was no overall change in science attitudes of teachers or students over the control groups but we did find differences in teachers’ reported self-efficacy and teaching anxiety levels, plus PD teachers reported doing more student-centered science teaching activities than the control group. All teachers came into the PD with high initial excitement, perhaps reflecting its context within an informal learning environment.     

Scientists,Engineers and the Society of Free Choice: Enrollment as Policy and Practice in Swedish Science and Technology Education 1960–1990

This article portrays the formation of a new problem area within Swedish educational policy in the 1960s, namely the need of scientific manpower and the demands to entice more individuals into studies in science and technology. As a consequence school science was given the mission to be interesting, fun and to change young people’s attitudes towards these subjects. In the 1970s and 1980s many initiatives were taken to increase the numbers of applicants at high school and university levels, both within curricular frames and out-of-school activities such as science clubs. Through an approach inspired by governmentality studies, I describe the strategies deployed to remedy the problem as rationalities of liberal governmentality. The actions taken were executed in a way to make school children choose science or technology out of their free will. It was an exercise of power that was not meant to restrain but instead to enable action.     

Economic dimensions of sustainable development, the fight against poverty and educational responses

The arguments in the article are based on the ongoing discourse in the academic community and among stakeholders, which has contributed to the articulation of the concepts and premises of sustainable development and the role of learning modalities, technologies and networks. The article draws on this discourse to explore the economic aspects of sustainable development, focusing on pervasive poverty, and the implications for educational actions. The concepts and underlying premises of education for sustainable development (ESD) are discussed. The article presents the key elements of an integrated approach to fighting poverty in the context of sustainable development. The role of learning and education in this integrated approach is outlined, framing the educational elements within the perspective of lifelong learning.     

From FRA to RFN,or How the Family Resemblance Approach Can Be Transformed for Science Curriculum Analysis on Nature of Science

The inclusion of Nature of Science (NOS) in the science curriculum has been advocated around the world for several decades. One way of defining NOS is related to the family resemblance approach (FRA). The family resemblance idea was originally described by Wittgenstein. Subsequently, philosophers and educators have applied Wittgenstein’s idea to problems of their own disciplines. For example, Irzik and Nola adapted Wittgenstein’s generic definition of the family resemblance idea to NOS, while Erduran and Dagher reconceptualized Irzik and Nola’s FRA-to-NOS by synthesizing educational applications by drawing on perspectives from science education research. In this article, we use the terminology of “Reconceptualized FRA-to-NOS (RFN)” to refer to Erduran and Dagher’s FRA version which offers an educational account inclusive of knowledge about pedagogical, instructional, curricular and assessment issues in science education. Our motivation for making this distinction is rooted in the need to clarify the various accounts of the family resemblance idea.The key components of the RFN include the aims and values of science, methods and methodological rules, scientific practices, scientific knowledge as well as the social-institutional dimensions of science including the social ethos, certification, and power relations. We investigate the potential of RFN in facilitating curriculum analysis and in determining the gaps related to NOS in the curriculum. We analyze two Turkish science curricula published 7 years apart and illustrate how RFN can contribute not only to the analysis of science curriculum itself but also to trends in science curriculum development. Furthermore, we present an analysis of documents from USA and Ireland and contrast them to the Turkish curricula thereby illustrating some trends in the coverage of RFN categories. The results indicate that while both Turkish curricula contain statements that identify science as a cognitive-epistemic system, they underemphasize science as a social-institutional system. The comparison analysis shows results such as the “scientific ethos” category being mentioned by the Irish curriculum while “social organizations and interactions” category being mentioned by the Turkish curriculum. In all documents, there was no overall coherence to NOS as a holistic narrative that would be inclusive of the various RFN categories simultaneously. The article contributes to the framing of NOS from a family resemblance perspective and highlights how RFN categories can be used as analytical tools.     

论教育生态学视域下的教师成长力及其养成

教师既是个体生命的存在,又是教育生态系统中的重要生态因子。基于教育生态学的视角来分析,教师成长力是指教师个体在其职业生涯、由新手型教师到专家型教师的成长过程中,教师个体生命存在的学习状态、行动状态、思考状态、创造状态及其持续发展的可能性、能力与潜势,其基本构成是学习力、行动力、反思力、创造力、发展力的合力。人生价值观与职业责任感、知识资本、学校环境与教育群体、首创与合作、反思与批判是影响教师成长力的生态因子。     

Science Teachers’ Misconceptions in Science and Engineering Distinctions: Reflections on Modern Research Examples

The aim of this exploratory study was to learn about the misconceptions that may arise for elementary and high school science teachers in their reflections on science and engineering practice. Using readings and videos of real science and engineering work, teachers’ reflections were used to uncover the underpinnings of their understandings. This knowledge ultimately provides information about supporting professional development (PD) for science teachers’ knowledge of engineering. Six science teachers (two elementary and four high school teachers) participated in the study as part of an online PD experience. Cunningham and Carlsen’s (Journal of Science Teacher Education 25:197–210, 2014) relative emphases of science and engineering practices were used to frame the design of PD activities and the analyses of teachers’ views. Analyses suggest misconceptions within the eight practices of science and engineering from the US Next Generation Science Standards in four areas. These are that: (1) the nature of the practices in both science and engineering research is determined by the long-term implications of the research regardless of the nature of the immediate work, (2) engineering and science are hierarchical, (3) creativity is inappropriate, and (4) research outcomes cannot be processes. We discuss the nature of these understandings among participants and the implications for engineering education PD for science teachers.