A Competence-Oriented Approach to Models and Modelling in Lower Secondary Science Education: Practices and Rationales Among Danish Teachers

A new science curriculum, with a significant emphasis on modelling, was recently adopted in Danish lower secondary education. The theoretical intentions behind the new curriculum include substantial changes to how teachers should address models and modelling in their practice. The purpose of this study is to analyse the alignment between the intentions and arguments for integrating models and modelling into science education, on the one hand, and teachers’ practices and rationales for integrating models and modelling into their teaching practice, on the other. First, this study outlines a theoretical competence-oriented modelling framework. This framework describes what kind of knowledge and practice of models and modelling needs to be integrated into teaching to accomplish a competence-oriented approach in this regard. Second, against the background of this framework, we conducted an empirical study of three teacher-teams’ talk about modelling and their practice of integrating models and modelling in their teaching. Our findings suggest that the participating teachers’ practices and rationales for integrating models and modelling into their teaching are characterised by a product-oriented approach that is not well aligned with competence-oriented teaching. Finally, we provide ideas for improving the alignment between theoretical intentions and teachers’ practice, targeted at science educators and curriculum designers.

     

Assessment of step accuracy using the Consumer Technology Association standard

The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of commercially-available physical activity devices when walking and running at various treadmill speeds using CTA 2056: Physical Activity Monitoring for Fitness Wearables: Step Counting, standard by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Twenty participants (10 males and 10 females) completed self-paced walking and running protocols on the treadmill for five minutes each. Eight devices (Apple iWatch series 1, Fitbit Surge, Garmin 235, Moto 360, Polar A360, Suunto Spartan Sport, Suunto Spartan Trainer, and TomTom Spark 3) were tested two at a time, one per wrist. Manual step counts were obtained from video to serve as the benchmark. The mean absolute percent error (MAPE) was calculated during walking and running. During walking, three devices: Fitbit Surge (11.20%), Suunto Sport (22.93%), and TomTom (10.11%) and during running, one device, Polar (10.66%), exceeded the CTA suggestion of a MAPE < 10%. The Moto 360 had the lowest MAPE of all devices for both walking and running. The devices tested had higher step accuracy with running than walking, except for the Polar. Overall, the Apple iWatch series 1, Moto 360, Garmin, and Suunto Spartan Trainer met the CTA standard for both walking and running.     

Peer assessment as a method of improving student engagement

To encourage increased student attendance and engagement in a third-year economics unit, the curriculum was redesigned to incorporate continuous assessment throughout the semester. A component of group project marks were allocated to peer assessment, in an attempt to address concerns about free-riding colleagues sharing a common mark. This study investigated the consistency of marks awarded to peers within teams, and the acceptance by students of marks awarded by peers. Students were asked to provide ratings and explanatory comments for each of their group peers. Focus groups were conducted to determine students’ acceptance of this strategy. Eighty student ratings were compared to determine consistency of assessment. Within groups, students who received higher marks from their peers generally awarded marks to their peers across a wider range, whereas students who received lower average grades often awarded the same mark to all team members. These results might indicate that students who were attending class regularly and/or contributing at a higher level were more discriminating in the marks awarded to their peers. Similarly, non-contributors (as identified by their peers) assigned the same or similar grades to each of their peers, possibly due to a lack of knowledge about their peers’ contributions.     

Arguing from Nature: The role of ‘nature’ in students’ argumentations on a socio-scientific issue

This paper explores how students invoked different conceptions of ‘nature’ in eight socio-scientific group discussions about human gene therapy. The paper illustrates and discusses how the students articulated nature and to what extent they elicited science factual content in the process. While the students in this study invoked nature at key places in a variety of dialectical contexts in the discussions, these invocations were often uncritical appeals and rarely involved science factual content. Even when an argument from nature was challenged, the author of that argument would often shift the sense of nature rather than elaborate upon the argumentation. It is argued that if students were properly introduced to the evaluative character of the term ‘nature’ it would not just be conducive to the quality of their argumentation, but also invite them to foreground science factual content at key places in their discussion.     

初为人父

正【阅读难度:】初为人父是什么感觉呢?面对一个既陌生又熟悉的小生命,不知所措?欣喜若狂?文中这位新手爸爸看着自己刚出世的儿子,感慨颇多。他看着小儿子的一颦一笑,还从地质学的角度感慨沧海桑田世事变迁。他不断惊叹造物者的伟大,能创造出一个让他一眼就爱上的完美小生命。     

Synchronization as a Classroom Dynamic: A Practitioner's Perspective

While carefully plotted lesson plans are invaluable in a classroom, tuning into the flow of the moment is just as essential. My experience has shown me that the most effective teaching happens when everyone in the room is in synch with one another. Teaching requires intuiting what each student is experiencing individually and adjusting in order to bring the room to a united rhythm. Too often we define teaching in terms of curriculum, assessment, and practical measures that do not encompass this instinctive evolutionary skill. Teaching is a natural cognitive ability that requires human interaction and is optimal when a form of synchrony or flow exists in interactions. As an experienced classroom teacher, I describe how these principles infuse my practice, which I hope serves as a useful lens for the Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) research community in its quest to uncover the underlying processes of teaching.     

A Cognitive Processing Model of Information Source Use and Stereotyping: African-American Stereotypes in South Korea

This study proposes a cognitive processing model to explain that stereotypes are the result of a two-way interaction between receiver evaluation of the valence of accessed information from the media, and receiver evaluation of the realism and believability of the information. This model is applied to analyze American media use and stereotyping of African-Americans among 378 high school students in South Korea. Findings partially support the proposed model: positive media portrayals perceived to be real and believable result in positive stereotyping, while negative media portrayals perceived to be real and believable result in negative stereotyping. Respondents perceived that messages disseminated by the American media were somewhat realistic and believable, and that American media portray African-Americans negatively.     

Using Pictorial Glossaries as an Accommodation for English Learners: An Exploratory Study

In this article we explore the use of pictorial glossaries as an accommodation for English learners (ELs) with entry and emerging levels of English language proficiency. Drawing on survey responses from 98 middle school ELs and cognitive interviews with 10 of the survey participants, we examined the participants’ preferences and experiences with using accommodations and explored how some of them responded to NAEP mathematics items using pictorial glossaries. Our findings showed that the participants viewed the use of pictures, videos, and translations as useful, but they did not have a lot of experience using these types of accommodations. Also, we found that the pictorial glosses sometimes helped ELs with understanding the local meaning of words in the mathematics problems but not with the global meaning conveyed at the sentence level in the problems.     

Lifelong learning to empowerment: beyond formal education

Abstract

This paper discusses the relevance of lifelong learning vis-à-vis the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and stresses the need for an approach blending formal education, non-formal and informal learning. The role of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in moving beyond formal education and the importance of integrating pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy in lifelong learning are raised as key factors in ensuring that education and learning can generate positive externalities and impact livelihoods. Through a case study in the agricultural sector, this paper analyses the role of lifelong learning in empowering smallholders of backyard poultry enterprises in Kenya and argues that lifelong learning needs to be placed in appropriate social and economic contexts to generate outcomes and impacts such as empowerment.