Observations from the classroom: When analogies go wrongi

Specializations: teachers' pedagogical knowledge, analogical reasoning, conceptual change.     

Chronicling decentralization initiatives in the Philippine basic education sector

The Philippine school system is considered as one of the largest in the world with 41,989 public elementary and secondary schools and 7790 private schools under the supervision and regulation of the Department of Education (DepEd Fact Sheet, 2005). This paper chronicles various decentralization initiatives carried out by the basic education sector in the country specifically along the areas of education financing, teacher effectiveness, curriculum development, textbooks and instructional materials, and school–community dynamics and student learning and assessment. This discourse culminates with the discussion of the lessons learned from a decentralized system of education for better school operation and management.     

Factors that prevent learning in electrochemistry

Electrochemistry plays an important role in curricula, textbooks, and in everyday life. The purpose of the present study was to identify and understand secondary‐school students' problems in learning electrochemistry at an introductory chemistry level. The investigation covered four areas: (a) electrolytes, (b) transport of electric charges in electrolyte solutions, (c) the anode and the cathode, and (d) the minus and plus poles. Written tests were given to high‐school students in five cycles. The population from which random samples were drawn totalled 15,700 subjects. Students were asked to select the correct answers and to justify their choices. It was found that students based their reasoning on four alternative concepts: (a) During electrolysis, the electric current produces ions; (b) electrons migrate through the solution from one electrode to the other; (c) the cathode is always the minus pole, the anode the plus pole; and (d) the plus and minus poles carry charges. The results suggest a teaching strategy in which students first experience and learn about electrochemistry concepts. In the second step, appropriate concept terms are added, and students then are confronted with the alternative concepts described in this article. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 258–283, 2007     

Stitching Codeable Circuits: High School Students’ Learning About Circuitry and Coding with Electronic Textiles

Learning about circuitry by connecting a battery, light bulb, and wires is a common activity in many science classrooms. In this paper, we expand students’ learning about circuitry with electronic textiles, which use conductive thread instead of wires and sewable LEDs instead of lightbulbs, by integrating programming sensor inputs and light outputs and examining how the two domains interact. We implemented an electronic textiles unit with 23 high school students ages 16–17 years who learned how to craft and code circuits with the LilyPad Arduino, an electronic textile construction kit. Our analyses not only confirm significant increases in students’ understanding of functional circuits but also showcase students’ ability in designing and remixing program code for controlling circuits. In our discussion, we address opportunities and challenges of introducing codeable circuit design for integrating maker activities that include engineering and computing into classrooms.     

Radical Artists & Art Students versus Management & Bureaucracy during the 1970s

This paper is an account of the impact of Conceptual art and art theory upon art students, studio tutors and managers during the 1970s in certain British art schools. The impact on students resulted in a shift away from the making of physical artefacts to the production of writings and magazines. It also problematised ‘the visual’ and encouraged critiques of art and the art education system. Some tutors responsible for art theory courses were dismissed and some students became politicised and attacked those in charge of art schools and polytechnics. Managers disciplined the students and, in some instances, failed and expelled them. William Furlong and Bruce McLean were two London based artists who responded to the ever‐increasing bureaucracy of art colleges by mounting a parodic performance.     

Teaching Science Effectively With Analogies: An Approach for Preservice and Inservice Teacher Education

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Jurisprudential and Ethical Perspectives on "The Best Interests of Children"

Justifications of policies must be clearly warranted if educational leaders are to continue to maintain integrity and to sustain the trust of those served. Educators are called upon to mediate many private and public interests, including those pertaining to personal, organizational, professional, and societal values. This work of mediating conflicting values often relates to guarding and/or advocating the interests of children. Leaders must understand what they mean when evoking the potent phrase in the best interests of children. More importantly, they must avoid the temptations of sophistic misuses of the best interests of children notion. What is meant when we say we are deciding in the best interests of children? Each of the political, psychological, pedagogical, philosophical, jurisprudential, and ethical grounds undergirding the concept of the best interests of the child contributes content and meaning to the phrase. While each of these perspectives merits consideration, this article is delimited to an exploration of three interpretations from the field of jurisprudence and four interpretations from the field of ethics.