Investigating teacher learning supports in high school biology curricular programs to inform the design of educative curriculum materials

Reform efforts have emphasized the need to support teachers' learning about reform‐oriented practices. Educative curriculum materials are one potential vehicle for promoting teacher learning about these practices. Educative curriculum materials include supports that are intended to promote both student and teacher learning. However, little is known about the extent to which existing curriculum materials provide support for teachers and the ways they can be improved. In this study, eight sets of high school biology curriculum materials were reviewed to determine their potential for promoting teacher learning. Design heuristics for educative curriculum materials were adapted for use as evaluation criteria. From this analysis, several themes emerged. First, the materials tended to provide support for teachers' subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for students' ideas (e.g., misconceptions) but rarely for their pedagogical content knowledge of scientific inquiry. Second, the materials contained several implementation guidance supports but far fewer rationales for instructional decisions, which are an important feature of educative curriculum materials. Finally, the quality of support varied widely, differing in its degree of relevance, pedagogical helpfulness, and depth. The article concludes with recommendations for the redesign of existing curriculum materials. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 977–998, 2009     

Lost and Found: Personal Reflections on Educational Earnestness and the Power of Love

In this essay, Polly Graham addresses a current instantiation of what might be called self‐loss within education in the United States. Graham observes that, in her experience, many students and educators, whether decidedly or without reflection, conform to superficial schooling practices that circumscribe the possibility of receiving affirmations for the sense of self we implicitly know to be authentic. Through narrative, she puts forward the possibility of “educational love” as a counter to the fundamental insecurity associated with habits of acting in conformance with superficial, alienated, school‐determined identity criteria. The question of “repetition” in a Kierkegaardian sense invites the reader to resist the logic of standardization — which assumes and valorizes comparability and reliability from an outsider perspective — in favor of a consideration of generalizability as embedded within the intimacy of a particular relation. As such, educational love is resonance rather than dictation.     

The Use of the Course Experience Questionnaire as a Monitoring Evaluation Tool in a Problem-based Medical Programme

This paper reports on the use of the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) as an instrument to monitor the medical programme at the University of Sydney and in particular to measure improvements in teaching quality with the introduction of the new graduate-entry problem-based programme. In addition, it raises the more general issue of interpretation of CEQ results in courses designed around problembased learning (PBL). Students' perceptions of teaching quality were sought using a whole class questionnaire survey and small group interviews. Students in the new programme rated their course more highly than did students in the old programme with respect to good teaching, appropriate assessment, generic skills and overall satisfaction. These improvements did not hold with respect to the clarity of goals and standards, nor for perceptions of an appropriate workload. The results are interpreted in context and it is argued that particular items in the CEQ do not reflect the educational philosophy or the instructional processes of PBL programmes.     

Fighting for Desired Versions of a Future Self: How Young Women Negotiated STEM-Related Identities in the Discursive Landscape of Educational Opportunity

In this article, we investigate how the national imperative to increase opportunities for young women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to broaden their participation was taken up locally at two high schools in one school district. Using ethnographic and longitudinal data, we focus on four young women of color (two at each school) as they negotiated STEM-related identities in the discursive and practice contexts of their lives at school. Using Holland and Lave’s concept of history in person, we view the young women as fighting for particular versions of a future self while entangled in discursive and social relations that threatened to position them differently than they wished to be. We find that their fight for future selves was not—for them—with the national narrative about women of color in STEM but with local school narratives that negatively positioned students of color more broadly and remained silent on issues of gender, the intersection of gender and race, and the implications for STEM. High school success in STEM came as a hopeful but potentially fragile byproduct of struggles to differentiate themselves from people like them (other Blacks, Latinas, the poor). Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Where, when, and why young athletes use imagery: an examination of developmental differences

The purpose of this study was to investigate young athletes' imagery use from a developmental perspective. The participants were 110 male and female athletes competing in both team and individual sports. They represented four different age cohorts (i.e., 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, and 13-14 years). Sixteen focus groups, two for each age category and gender, were used as the method of data collection. The findings indicated "where," "when, " and "why" young athletes use imagery and how imagery use changes as children move from early childhood through to early adolescence. Overall, results revealed that all age cohorts reported using imagery in both training and competition and for both cognitive and motivational purposes. The present research also found support for studying imagery use by young athletes from a developmental perspective.     

An Objectivist Critique of Relativism in Mathematics Education

Many constructivists tag as `absolutist' references to mathematics as an abstract body of knowledge, and stake-out the moral high-ground with the argument that mathematics is not only utilised oppressively but that mathematics is, in-itself, oppressive. With much reference to Ernest's (1991) Philosophy of Mathematics Education this tag has been justified on the grounds that if mathematics is a social-cultural creation that is mutable and fallible then it must be social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics. This paper argues that mathematics, albeit a social-cultural creation that is mutable and fallible, is a body of knowledge the objectivity of which is independent of origin or social acceptance. Recently, Ernest (1998) has attempted to express social constructivism as a philosophy of mathematics and has included the category of logical necessity in his elaboration of the objectivity of mathematics. We argue that this inclusion of logical necessity not only represents a U-turn, but that the way in which Ernest has included this category is an attempt to maintain his earlier position that it is social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics.     

Self-regulated strategy development in writing: Going beyond NLEs to a more balanced approach

In this article, we present an argument for consideration by those researching and promoting new learning environments (NLEs). We believe advocates of NLEs should consider the literature and research base indicating effective instruction is not based on a forced dichotomy between theoretical perspectives, but rather a thoughtful, pragmatic blending of practices based on evidence gained from various perspectives and lines of research. While unguided or minimally guided instructional approaches are popular and intuitively appealing, these approaches ignore substantial evidence indicating these approaches are less effective and less efficient than instructional approaches that incorporate guidance of the learning process that is faded as internal guidance is developed (Kirschner et al., Educ Psychol 41:75–86, 2006). We illustrate how integrating evidence from multiple theoretical perspectives leads to the development of more powerful approaches to learning and instruction through a review of the premises, evolution, and research behind Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) in the area of writing.     

PERSISTENCE AND THE RELATIONSHIP TO ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE MEASURES: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

The persistence rates of community college transfer students were contrasted to those of native university students over a six year period. A general trend was observed which suggested community college transfer students were less likely to persist when returning to school for their second or third semesters of coursework. However, those transfer students remaining for the third semester of coursework were just as likely to persist as the native students for the next semester. Questions were raised about the validity of the notion of “transfer shock”, which may actually be a reflection of the change in the student population being observed.     

Disproportionate over-representation of Indigenous students in New South Wales government special schools

A significant gap exists in the Australian research literature on the disproportionate over-representation of minority groups in special education. The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the research evidence-base by sketching an outline of the issue as it presents in Australia’s largest education system in the state of New South Wales. Findings from this research show that Indigenous students are equally represented in special schools enrolling students with autism, physical, sensory, and intellectual disabilities, but significantly over-represented in special schools enrolling students under the categories of emotional disturbance, behaviour disorder and juvenile detention. Factors that might influence the disproportionate over-representation of Indigenous children and young people are discussed, and based on these observations, some practical implications for policy and practice are provided.