Post-secondary Science Students’ Explanations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Randomness</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Variation</Emphasis> and Implications for Science Learning

The concepts of randomness and variation are pervasive in science. The purpose of this study was to document how post-secondary life science students explain randomness and variation, infer relationships between their explanations, and ability to describe and identify appropriate and inappropriate variation, and determine if students can identify sources of variation. An instrument designed to test statistical concepts was administered to 282 college students from three universities, ranging from introductory non-science majors to science graduate students. Students readily distinguished between causes of variation. A naïve no-pattern concept of randomness persisted from first-year non-science majors to senior-level science majors, contributing to incorrect responses on the variation instrument. Students’ expressions of randomness were better predictors of performance on the variation instrument than their expressions of variation. It is argued that inclusion of everyday language uses of randomness in instruction can bridge the gap between vernacular and scientific uses of this term.     

Learning from children’s voice in schools: Experiences from Ireland

In Ireland there is progressive legislation on children’s participation in the education system. The Education Act 1998 advocates that school boards should involve students in the school and establish student councils in second-level schools. Since the publication of this legislation progress on realising students’ participation in schools has been slow. In 2006 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Ireland strengthen its efforts to enable children to express their views in schools and other educational institutions. The National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-making (2015), the first to be produced internationally, commits to facilitating children and young people’s voice in the development of education policy, the running of schools and in other areas of school policy. This paper presents and discusses the results of qualitative participatory research with children and young people aged between 7 and 17 years, teachers and school principals, and parents, on their attitudes towards and opportunities for participation by students in schools in Ireland. The data reveal that students are keen to participate in school but recognise that their opportunities to do so are inadequate, that teachers understand participation very differently from students, and that parents have little knowledge of their children’s participatory experiences in school. It concludes that effective participation in schools requires policy, practical and cultural change.     

Population policies and education: exploring the contradictions of neo‐liberal globalisation

The world is increasingly characterised by profound income, health and social inequalities (Appadurai, 2000 Appadurai, A. 2000. Grassroots globalisation and the research imagination. Public Culture, 12(1): 1–19. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). In recent decades development initiatives aimed at reducing these inequalities have been situated in a context of increasing globalisation with a dominant neo‐liberal economic orthodoxy. This paper argues that neo‐liberal globalisation contains inherent contradictions regarding choice and uniformity. This is illustrated in this paper through an exploration of the impact of neo‐liberal globalisation on population policies and programmes. The dominant neo‐liberal economic ideology that has influenced development over the last few decades has often led to alternative global visions being overlooked. Many current population and development debates are characterised by polarised arguments with strongly opposing aims and views. This raises the challenge of finding alternatives situated in more middle ground that both identify and promote the socially positive elements of neo‐liberalism and state intervention, but also to limit their worst excesses within the population field and more broadly. This paper concludes with a discussion outling the positive nature of middle ground and other possible alternatives.     

Social responsibility and community development: Lessons from the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial in Honduras

This article extends understanding of the connections between education, social capital, and development through a mixed-methods case study of the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, or SAT¹, an innovative secondary-level education system. The quantitative dimension of the research used survey measures of social responsibility to compare 93 SAT students to 88 other students in conventional Honduran schools, with samples based on the naturally occurring (non-random) presence of one of these two different educational programs in each of nine nearby Honduran communities. Preliminary findings suggest that students in the SAT program held a greater sense of social responsibility than their peers in conventional schools. Students’ statements about their own educational experiences were analyzed in order to identify some of the characteristics of the SAT program that may have led to this difference. The SAT approach to developing social responsibility is contrasted to a human rights focused approach.     

Empowering Classroom Teachers for the 21st Century: meeting the challenge of advancing children's mathematical development1

In this paper, the specific concerns for literacy and numeracy as we enter a new era are addressed through a discussion of an innovative mathematics early intervention programme, which the author and classroom teachers have developed and applied. ‘Mathematics Intervention ‘ is an innovative programme developed by three classroom teachers to identify, then assist, children in year 1 ‘at risk’ of not coping with the current mathematics curriculum. The programme incorporates assessment tools and learning activities based on recent research about children's early numerical learning. It develops the basic concepts of number upon which children build their understanding of mathematics. All three teachers participated in a professional development course, which developed skills that allow teachers to recognise which children have a problem, to identify the underlying problem and to provide appropriate activities to advance their mathematical development. The course highlights the benefits of clinical interviewing as an assessment tool and promotes various strategies that classroom teachers can use to assist the development of numerical concepts. ‘Mathematics Intervention’ is an example of a programme developed and implemented by classroom teachers using new learning processes designed to empower classroom teachers to meet the challenge of advancing all children's mathematical development.     

What were the processes and outcomes of involving secondary school pupils transitioning from primary to secondary school in pre-arrival shared-reading? A case study

ABSTRACT

Coombe Boys’ School in New Malden worked with Kingston University to establish a ‘Big Read’, a scheme of pre-arrival shared-reading for boys transitioning from local primary schools into year 7 of the Coombe Boys’ secondary school. A novel was chosen for shared-reading, and all arriving pupils were given a copy at their Induction Day (at the end of the summer term). Copies were also made available to all staff. The book was the basis of group-based activities during the school’s Summer School (three weeks before of the start of the autumn term) and of cross-curricular individual and group-based activities during the early teaching weeks of the new school year. Outcomes were monitored using online surveys of pupils, staff and parents/guardians, and through face to face interviews with individuals from representative groups. Here outcomes are reported, both direct and indirect, comparisons made with similar schemes within higher education, and recommendations are made for how the scheme might be adapted for greater effectiveness in future.     

Native american related materials in elementary science instruction

The low achievement of Native American students, as measured by standardized tests, results from a number of factors, including the lack of cultural relevance of curriculum materials used in their instruction. Using a pretest–posttest control group design, Native American students in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in Grades 4–8 who were taught science using culturally relevant materials achieved significantly higher and displayed a significantly more positive attitude toward Native Americans and science than comparable students who were taught science without the culturally relevant materials. It is suggested that when educators of Native Americans teach science, they should use materials that incorporate frequent reference to Native Americans and science.     

A Teacher's and Researcher's Experiences with Power and Representation within the Practical Argument Process

The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions that erupted between the two authors during the final stages of their engagement with the practical argument process. These tensions arose when the 'researcher' constructed a representation of 'the teacher's' reality. In this paper, the researcher shares her representation and the teacher responds to her analysis. The teacher's response to the researcher's representation of her and her teaching suggests tensions arose between the teacher and the researcher over how the researcher constructed the teacher's practical argument. As the teacher and the researchers, we analyze our experiences with the practical argument process and our collaborative relationship. The result is an enlarged view of the place of story and practical argument within research collaborations. In addition, we learned the necessity of continuing dialog between researcher and teacher through the writing of the project. This ensures that, regardless of the research method, both collaborators are heard and their tales are told in the public representation.