PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF CULTURALLY RELEVANT SCIENCE TEACHING IN AMERICAN INDIAN CLASSROOMS

This study explores the perceptions of culturally relevant science teaching of 35 teachers of American Indian students. These teachers participated in professional development designed to help them better understand climate change science content and teaching climate change using both Western science and traditional and cultural knowledge. Teacher perceptions of practices using culturally relevant instruction were evaluated. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results from the survey analysis show that the teachers’ existing practices of culturally relevant science teaching were limited in choosing topics relevant to American Indian culture. We found three common themes from the teachers’ perceptions of culturally relevant science teaching, meaning of culturally relevant science teaching, teaching strategies, and purpose of culturally relevant science teaching from the qualitative data. We also found that teachers with higher survey scores perceive culturally relevant science teaching differently than teachers with lower survey scores, specifically for the purposes and teaching strategies of culturally relevant science teaching. The results show that teachers with higher survey scores tended to perceive culturally relevant science teaching as a two-way learning process between teachers and students where the teachers can learn traditional science knowledge from the students. They also tend to perceive using concrete traditional science examples as effective teaching strategy for culturally relevant science teaching and building strong relationships with American Indian students as the most important purpose of culturally relevant science teaching. We also discuss common challenges faced by science teachers when trying to implement culturally relevant science teaching with American Indian students.     

The Language of Schools: Curricular goals and classroom life

The experience of becoming a teacher involves more than learning to use the tools of the trade. Using the example of teaching questioning strategies in a curriculum methods seminar for student teachers, two teacher-educators present questions and dilemmas that arise out of the tension between the use of language as a tool, and the experience of language as an aspect of becoming teachers. Anecdotes from classrooms show how student teachers develop an awareness of the dynamic interplay of these language forms. We suggest that this dynamic interplay can be understood as aesthetic form, an aspect of teaching practice which enables teachers to sustain the pedagogical relation.     

Premature closure and guided reinvention: a case study in a web‐based learning environment

Just as linguistic errors have provided insights into the nature of linguistic competence(s), detailed analyses of blind spots or marked trajectories in the reflection cycles of novice teachers may provide a window on their underlying beliefs, and thus on relevant zones of proximal development. In this paper we analyse a case study in an experimental web‐based learning environment in which a novice teacher demonstrably just reproduces the assumptions she started out with rather than re‐inspecting them. Having located a problem of motivation uniquely inside the learners’ heads, she pointedly ignores hints in the feedback that her own verbal and nonverbal behaviour in the classroom might be a relevant domain of enquiry. Our findings show the need for structural interventions within a priori hypothesized, linearly ordered, stages in reflection models. We report on two small‐scale experiments that implement suggested changes in the architecture of the web site which yield more context‐sensitive ways of scaffolding reflection. In conclusion we argue that detailed discursive accounts of successful and less successful reflection trajectories are needed to refine and further develop models in teacher thinking.     

Student Performance in Research Methods Classes: Assessing the Predictive Validity of the DRAMA Scale

A recent study appearing in this journal argued that student anxiety concerning research methods classes in criminology and criminal justice is characterized by three separate but related concepts: Disinterest, Relevance Argumentation, and Math Anxiety (DRAMA). The current study extends the previous work by presenting a modified version of the DRAMA scale and assessing its ability to predict student performance among a sample of students enrolled in an introductory research methods class at a university located in the southeastern United States. In support of the main hypothesis, the composite DRAMA scale was a significant, negative predictor of student grades. Subsequent analysis indicated that the effect of DRAMA was largely the result of the Math Anxiety subscale.     

Predicting Robust Learning With the Visual Form of the Moment-by-Moment Learning Curve

We present a new method for analyzing a student's learning over time for a specific skill: analysis of the graph of the student's moment-by-moment learning over time. Moment-by-moment learning is calculated using a data-mined model that assesses the probability that a student learned a skill or concept at a specific time during learning (Baker, Goldstein, & Heffernan, 2010 Baker, R. S. J. d., Goldstein, A. B. and Heffernan, N. T. 2010. “Detecting the moment of learning”. In Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems 25–34. In V. Aleven, J. Kay, & J. Mostow (Eds.),pp.Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2011). Two coders labeled data from students who used an intelligent tutoring system for college genetics. They coded in terms of 7 forms that the moment-by-moment learning curve can take. These labels are correlated to test data on the robustness of students’ learning. We find that different visual forms are correlated with very different learning outcomes. This work suggests that analysis of moment-by-moment learning curves may be able to shed light on the implications of students’ different patterns of learning over time.     

A Framing Primer for Community College Leaders

The purpose of this article is to be a tool for community college leaders, as well as campus members, to positively and effectively utilize framing on their campuses. The fictional case of Maggie Pascal at Midwestern Community College illustrates the process of framing the change of a new partnership with Wind Energy Corporation to internal stakeholders on campus. This case illustrates the importance of understanding context and frames before the action of framing can be activated. A leader can then decide which type of framing to utilize (i.e., step-by-step, vision, or connective) and which language tools will be most effective in framing. The ways a practitioner operationalizes framing is through symbolism, talking, walking, and writing (Eddy, 2010a). This idea of framing is an important skill leaders can proactively develop to support their campuses through change processes to enhance the likelihood for a successful change outcome. Also, this may benefit other campus members who may have the opportunity to frame meaning for others or to be involved in making sense of a leader’s framing.     

TWO‐YEAR COLLEGE ATTRITION: DO STUDENT OR INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS CONTRIBUTE MOST?

This study examined certain effects of seven student pre‐enrollment characteristics and three student‐institutional characteristics on retention status. Path analysis of these longitudinal data was unable to compare favorably with other studies using similar determinants. Certain practical implications of the study also are presented, emphasizing the burden of evidence that suggests that entering student characteristics cannot be used alone to explain the retention decision, that retention programs should be strategically rather than generically focused, and that program holding power may be related to student career consciousness and goal specificity.