Student Science Teachers Constructing Practical Knowledge from Inservice Science Supervisors' Stories

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

幼儿园初任教师成功因素的质性研究

教师能否成功度过初任期是决定其职业生涯成败和专业发展方向的关键。本研究采用质性研究的个案研究法,通过长时间观察、深度访谈、收集相关文件档案等资料搜集手段,全面深入地探讨个案中的幼儿园初任教师面临的困扰和挑战及其是如何成功应对的,结果发现个案教师的成功与其自身的正向个性、直面挑战、投入专业成长以及幼儿园内外支持四项因素有关,且这四项因素相互影响,正向个性促使教师在遇到困难时敢于直接面对挑战;直面挑战促使教师积极学习,投入专业成长;投入专业成长又增加了教师面对挑战的能力和决心;幼儿园内外支持给予教师面对挑战的勇气,并为其专业成长提供良好条件。为成功度过初任期,教师应提前了解工作场合,快速融入园所组织文化,自我调适,积极投入专业成长,主动承担一些额外的工作,必要时做出一些退让;幼儿园应完善初任教师导入制度,帮助其尽快适应幼儿园的课程与教学及人际关系等;教师培养单位不仅应重视教育知识和能力,而且应让学生了解入职后会面临的问题与解决策略,帮助其做好心理准备。     

Complexities of Identity Formation: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Novice EFL Teacher's Identity Construction

This thesis intends to explore the process of identity construction of an ELF teacher. After analysis of his words, the following three findings are summarized: First, middle school teachers can enjoy high social reputation but low economic status. Second, teachers should treat students equally and become their friends and guiders. Third, to be responsible for students, teachers need to keep charging themselves and strive to teach students some knowledge beyond the textbook.     

Putting Cognitive Science Behind a Statistics Teacher's Intuition

Recent advances in cognitive science have led to an enriched understanding of how people learn. Using a framework presented by Willingham, this article examines instructional best practice from the perspective of conceptual understanding and its implications on statistics education.     

Impact of Inservice Education in Elementary Science: Participants Revisited a Year Later

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

课例研究与教师数学学科教学知识(MPCK)的发展

课例研究(Lesson Study)是教师数学学科教学知识(MPCK)发展的有效途径,课例研究能优化教师数学学科知识(MK)的结构,能促进教师教学法知识(PK)的整合,能激发教师数学学习知识(CK)的生长.与此同时,在课例研究中,确定明确的主题是关键,积极探究的过程是核心,不同教师的合作是主线.     

Evaluation of a Statewide Science Inservice and Outreach Program: Teacher and Student Outcomes

Journal of Science Education and Technology -     

Investigating the Cognitive complerrity of Science Assessments

How can knowledge of the development of expertise in a subject area inform the development of assessments in that area? How can one examine the relationship between what is anticipated from a performance assessment and what is actually seen?     

Sustaining Reform-Based Science Teaching of Preservice and Inservice Elementary School Teachers

This study examined the influence of a professional development program based around commercially available inquiry science curricula on the teaching practices of 27 beginning elementary school teachers and their teacher mentors over a 2 year period. A quantitative rubric used to score inquiry elements and use of data in videotaped lessons indicated that education students assigned to inquiry-based classrooms during their methods course or student teaching year outperformed students without this experience. There was also a significant positive effect of multi-year access to the kit-based program on mentor teaching practice. Recent inclusion of a “writing in science” program in both preservice and inservice training has been used to address the lesson element that received lowest scores—evaluation of data and its use in scientific explanation.     

初中科学新课导入方法浅谈

要从学生的实际出发,注重创设学习科学的情境,激发好奇心与求知欲,让学生自主地进行探究,体验探究过程的曲折和兴趣,学习科学方法,发展科学探究所需要的能力并增进对科学探究的理解。而新课导入是促进学生进行自主学习和科学探究的前提,是优化课堂教学的一种必要手段,也是教师教学艺术的重要组成部分。     

Designing and Validating Assessments of Complex Thinking in Science

Typical assessment systems often measure isolated ideas rather than the coherent understanding valued in current science classrooms. Such assessments may motivate students to memorize, rather than to use new ideas to solve complex problems. To meet the requirements of the Next Generation Science Standards, instruction needs to emphasize sustained investigations, and assessments need to create a detailed picture of students’ conceptual understanding and reasoning processes.

This article describes the design process and potential for automated scoring of 2 forms of inquiry assessment: Energy Stories and MySystem. To design these assessments, we formed a partnership of teachers, discipline experts, researchers, technologists, and psychometricians to align curriculum, assessments, and rubrics. We illustrate how these items document middle school students’ reasoning about energy flow in life science. We used evidence from review by science teachers and experts in the discipline; classroom experiments; and psychometric analysis to validate the assessments, rubrics, and automated scoring.     

Developing Understanding of the Nature of Science Within a Professional Development Program for Inservice Elementary Teachers: Project Nature of Elementary Science Teaching

Establishing literacy in science is often linked to building knowledge about the Nature of Science (NOS). This paper describes and evaluates an inservice program designed to build elementary teachers’ understanding of NOS and an awareness of how NOS impacts science classroom instruction. Data sources consisted of surveys, action research plan documentation and classroom observations. Program participants tended to demonstrate some gains in understanding more about NOS and they linked positive experiences in the program to the explicit and activity-based NOS instruction provided. Yet, participation in the professional development project might not have been equally beneficial for all teachers. The understanding of NOS may have been restricted to certain NOS aspects, and the demonstration of the participants’ understanding of NOS may have been short-lived with a somewhat limited impact on sustainable, long-term NOS-based classroom instruction. Implications for designing NOS related professional development programs and suggestions for improvements to further develop teacher understanding of NOS are discussed.     

Note on Sources of Sampling Variability in Science Performance Assessments

In 1993, we reported in Journal of Educational Measurement that task-sampling variability was the Achilles' heel of science performance assessment. To reduce measurement error, tasks needed to be stratified before sampling, sampled in large number, or possibly both. However, Cronbach, Linn, Brennan, & Haertel (1997) pointed out that a task-sampling interpretation of a large person x task variance component might be incorrect. Task and occasion sampling are confounded because tasks are typically given on only a single occasion. The person x task source of measurement error is then confounded with the pt x occasion source. If pto variability accounts for a substantial part of the commonly observed pt interaction, stratifying tasks into homogenous subsets—a cost-effective way of addressing task sampling variability—might not increase accuracy. Stratification would not address the pro source of error. Another conclusion reported in JEM was that only direct observation (DO) and notebook (NB) methods of collecting performance assessment data were exchangeable; computer simulation, short-answer, and multiple-choice methods were not. However, if Cronbach et al. were right, our exchangeability conclusion might be incorrect. After re-examining and re-analyzing data, we found support for Conbach et al. We concluded that large task-sampling variability was due to both the person x task interaction and person x task x occasion interaction. Moreover, we found that direct observation, notebook and computer simulation methods were equally exchangeable, but their exchangeability was limited by the volatility of student performances across tasks and occasions.     

Effect on Primary Level Students of Inservice Teacher Education in an Informal Science Setting

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Examining Teaching Emphases of History of Science in Award-Winning Science Lesson Plans in Macao

Science & Education - In this study, we examined the teaching emphasis of the history of science (HOS) in science lesson plans. The examination was based on a five-dimensional framework, which...     

The Effects of Working in Pairs in Science Performance Assessments

Concerns about the effects of multiple-choice measures in traditional testing programs have led many educators and policymakers to suggest the use of alternative assessment methods. Some performance-based assessments require students to work in small collaborative groups as part of the test process. This study uses responses to hands-on science tasks at Grades 5 and 8 to examine whether the score a student earns while working with someone else is a truly independent assessment of that student's ability. We also explore whether working in pairs affects an individual's scores on subsequent tasks and whether these results are consistent across grade levels. Our analyses indicate that at Grades 5 and 8, work done with a partner should not be considered as an independent assessment of each student's ability. Some evidence of carry-over effects from working in pairs was found at each grade.     

The Interactions of Conceptions of Teaching Science and Environmental Factors to Produce Praxis in Three Novice Teachers of Science

One strategy for implementing learner-centered teaching is through the preparation of teachers and their induction into the profession. This article presents case studies of three secondary science teachers that follow them from their science teacher education program that advocated teaching for conceptual change as one approach to learner-centered teaching into their first years of teaching. The article’s purpose is to describe the teachers’ initial conceptions of teaching science carried over from their teacher preparation program, and how they integrated those conceptions with the environmental influences of their classrooms and schools to produce praxis. Data were collected from the participants in several different ways during the participants’ pre-service year and during their first year or two of teaching: Observation of the participants’ teaching; related interviews with participants; and their action research journals. As they approached the end of their first or second year of teaching, all three teachers demonstrated increased levels of confidence in their teaching competence, both in their classroom performance and their places in their departments and schools. None of them had, however, fully implemented conceptual change teaching approach that was the specific goal of their teacher preparation program.