Teaching Science as a Process,Not a Set of Facts

Science & Education - The widespread misperception of science as a deliverer of irrefutable facts, rather than a deliberative process, is undermining public trust in science. Science education...     

Educational impact on the relationship of environmental knowledge and attitudes

This study examines the relationships between the environmental attitudes and environmental knowledge of schoolchildren within the framework of an environmental intervention. We employed questions from the 2-MEV model to monitor students’ environmental attitudes in terms of the model factors Preservation and Utilisation while concurrently monitoring three environmental knowledge dimensions (system, action-related and effectiveness knowledge) at three different test times during the course of a four-day field centre programme for fourth-graders (N = 133, M_age = 9.8 years). Probably due to measurement constraints (e.g. a ceiling effect, social desirability), we found no correlation between environmental knowledge and the attitude Preservation at all test times. The attitude Utilisation correlated negatively with all environmental knowledge dimensions, indicating that students who score higher on Utilisation are more likely, for example, to have and gain more system knowledge through programme participation than the other students or vice versa, as a causal relationship cannot be derived from our analyses: system knowledge may also influence Utilisation. In other words, children who refrain from (ab)using nature also seem to put more effort into improving their environmental knowledge and/or children who engage in learning about the environment will become less exploitative towards the environment.     

Physical education teaching as a caring act—techniques of bodily touch and the paradox of caring

In this article, we investigate ‘no touch policies’ as a practical teacher concern that includes the body as a location, a source and a means in educational activity. We argue that to understand issues regarding physical touch within school practice we must conceive it as deeply associated with specific teaching techniques. Thus, the didactical challenge is not found in argumentations about the pro and cons of physical touch, but through analysis of how teachers handle student interaction and teaching intentions.

We consider teaching as a caring profession. Caring, as a practical teacher concern, requires wisdom regarding the right time to use bodily touch and to refrain from such use. This wisdom involves the ability to discern people’s needs, desires, interests and purposes in particular situations and act appropriately. From a body pedagogical perspective we approach intergenerational touch not only as a discursive and power-related question but as an essential tension in the intersection of the; ambiguity attendant to any intentional act such as teaching, the conflict between the ethics of care and the ethics of justice, and finally, the paradox of caring.

We draw on interviews with PE-teachers in Swedish primary, secondary and upper-secondary schools and analyses of a collection of techniques of bodily touch that are established and practiced with specific pedagogical purposes. The results shows PE teacher’s competence in handling different functions of intergenerational touch in relation to three different techniques of bodily touch; (1) Security touch, which is characterized by intentions to handle the fragile; (2) Denoting touch, which is characterized by intentions to handle learning content and (3) Relational touch, which is characterized by caring intentions. Each of these is of importance for the teachers in carrying out their call to teach and each of these relies on professional assessments whether or not it meets its intended purpose.     

A description of a mother's play guidance for her child with autism in the process of playing by the rules

The purpose of this study is to describe the strategies used by a mother with a child with autism during games activities with peers to provide the child with social skills. The research method of this study is ‘a qualitative single‐subject case study’. The participants in this research are a mother and her 9‐year‐old child with autism, one brother and three typically developing peers. The research data were collected through field notes, interviews, audio and videotape recordings during natural interactions between the mother and her child. The strategies the mother used were analysed using video records during games activities in a natural park. The interactions of the mother with her child were examined in the context of a hide‐and‐seek game. Micro‐ethnographic‐analysis techniques were used in the analysis of the video records. According to the research data, it was found that the mother with a child with autism made extensive use of 13 different verbal strategies and seven different non‐verbal strategies. It was observed that the mother guided her child and the group during the hide‐and‐seek game, arranged the environment of the games, carried out routine activities both at the beginning and at the end of the games and arranged the games in accordance with the abilities and preferences of the child. These applications bear a resemblance to the model of integrated game groups. As a result, the data from the present research reveal that a mother having a child with autism acts as a guide during the games and uses verbal and non‐verbal interaction strategies in this guidance process and by doing so contributes to the process of participation in the games by the child with autism and in the child's social interaction with his peers.     

Evaluation of the level of problem solving skills of Turkish higher education graduates in technology-rich environments

Educational technology research and development - This study aims to evaluate the level of Turkish higher education graduates’ problem-solving skills (PSSs) in technology-rich environments...     

A meta-analysis of the impact of mobile learning on mathematics achievement

Education and Information Technologies - The technological developments of the twenty-first century have enabled the emergence of alternative teaching-learning models and instructional tools. One...     

I am sailing—towards a transactional analysis of ‘body techniques’

In recent years there has been a growing interest in questions related to embodiment and learning. Within the field of ‘body pedagogics’ great efforts have been made to develop theory and methodology that can deal with the corporeal aspects of experience and knowledge without adopting any form of dualistic conceptions of body/mind and organism/environment. This article connects to this body of research. The purpose is to first present a synthesis of James' radical empiricism, Dewey's transactional understanding of experience and learning and Marcel Mauss' concept of ‘body techniques’ and the notion of education embedded in it. Against the background of this theoretical development, and with a Transactional Model of Analyzing Bodying (TMAB), we then show how we can analytically come to terms with different dualistic problems that research into ‘body pedagogics’ has to deal with. We use an empirical example of dinghy sailing to create knowledge about what we learn when learning embodied knowledge, and how this learning takes place. We argue that experience is an important concept for understanding the acting knowing human being, describing how experience is organized and developed and outlining how this organization can be understood as learning. We hold that situations where someone learns to embody certain knowledge are cases of overt actions, in which we can see what kinds of relations are created and how these relations become meaningful for further action.     

Testing a model of teaching for anxiety and success for English language teaching

Much research has shown that there is a negative relationship between high levels of anxiety and success for English language teaching. This paper aimed to test a model of teaching for anxiety and success in English language teaching to affect anxiety and success levels at the same time in a control-experiment group with pre- and post-test study design. Anxiety levels were measured by anxiety questionnaires and electroencephalograph recordings of brain waves and success was measured by grammar tests prepared by the researcher. Results of Mann–Whitney U Test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test and ANOVA pointed to a statistically significant difference in anxiety and success levels between the experiment and control group. Discussion of the results as well as implications for future research is presented.     

Assessment by project work in snow engineering

Assessment in the form of a large project and field- and laboratory work was shown to be successful when applied to a course in snow engineering for university students with various backgrounds. The course was interdisciplinary, with teachers representing three different engineering disciplines. The project work was assessed by a report, a short oral presentation and an optional presentation such as a home page, a poster or a physical model. The students experienced that they had learned more with this assessment strategy than from courses with a final written exam. Peer evaluation of the relative contributions to the project work was applied and was appreciated by the students. The experiences of practical engineering tasks during the project work were also appreciated.