Whither Teacher-Directed Learning? Freirean and Confucian Insights

Teacher-directed learning is often perceived to be detrimental to student learning and incompatible with learner-centered approaches. This essay challenges this perception by referring to Freirean and Confucian insights. It is argued that Freire, Confucius, and Xunzi advocated the active involvement of the teacher in student learning through necessary intervention and guidance towards self-directed learning. This article proposes a flexible application and combination of teacher-directed and learner-/self-directed learning that caters to the learner’s needs.     

Constructivism and pedagogical reform in China: issues and challenges

This article critically discusses the constructivist ideas, assumptions and practices that undergird the current pedagogical reform in China. The pedagogical reform is part of a comprehensive curriculum reform that has been introduced across schools in Mainland China. Although the official documents did not specify the underpinning theories for the pedagogical reform, Chinese scholars and educators have identified constructivism as a dominant theory. The essay argues that the acceptance of constructivist views and logics has generated three key challenges for Chinese educators with respect to the content, teaching approach and assessment. The challenges are the concern that constructivism will undermine content mastery, the perceived incompatibility between constructivism and the traditional transmission approach, and the misalignment between constructivism and the prevailing assessment system in China. The example of China adds to the international body of literature on the attraction and borrowing of ‘modern’ educational theories and practices, and the tensions and difficulties engendered in the process.     

Investigating the Impact of NGSS-Aligned Professional Development on PreK-3 Teachers’ Science Content Knowledge and Pedagogy

This pilot study investigates the impact of a 2-week professional development Summer Institute on PK-3 teachers’ knowledge and practices. This Summer Institute is a component of [program], a large-scale early-childhood science project that aims to transform PK-3 science teaching. The mixed-methods study examined concept maps, lesson plans, and classroom observations to measure possible changes in PK-3 teachers’ science content knowledge and classroom practice from 11 teachers who attended the 2014 Summer Institute. Analysis of the concept maps demonstrated statistically significant growth in teachers’ science content knowledge. Analysis of teachers’ lesson plans demonstrated that the teachers could design high quality science inquiry lessons aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards following the professional development. Finally, examination of teachers’ pre- and post-Summer Institute videotaped inquiry lessons showed evidence that teachers were incorporating new inquiry practices into their teaching, especially regarding classroom discourse. Our results suggest that an immersive inquiry experience is effective at beginning a shift towards reform-aligned science and engineering instruction but that early elementary educators require additional support for full mastery.     

Assessing Teachers' Beliefs about Their Science Teaching Context

The primary purpose of this study was to develop and apply a method for assessing teachers' context beliefs about their science teaching environment. Interviews with 130 purposefully selected teachers resulted in 28 categories of environmental factors and/or people who were perceived to influence science teaching. These categories were used to develop items for the Context Beliefs about Teaching Science instrument and provided evidence for content validity. Construct validity was partially confirmed through factor analysis that resulted in 26 items and two subscales on the final instrument. Using Ford's Motivation Systems Theory and Bandura's Theory of Collective Efficacy, additional evidence for construct validity was found in the modest correlation of context beliefs with outcome expectancy beliefs and the low correlation with science teaching self‐efficacy beliefs. The instrument was tested using 262 teachers participating in long‐term science professional development programs. These teachers possessed fairly positive context beliefs and, according to Ford's theory, should be capable of effective functioning in the classroom. It was concluded that the assessment of context beliefs would complement current science teacher self‐efficacy measures, thereby allowing researchers to develop profiles of science teachers' personal agency belief patterns. It could also be used to determine the factors which predict particular personal agency belief patterns, and assess teachers' perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of school science programs, and could be used in planning and monitoring professional development experiences for science teachers. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 275–292, 2000.     

Teacher beliefs and intentions regarding the implementation of science education reform strands

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors influencing teachers' intentions to implement the four strands (inquiry, knowledge, conditions, and applications) of the State of Ohio's (U.S.) Competency Based Science Model. Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior was used to examine the influence of three primary constructs (attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) on teachers' intentions to engage in the targeted behaviors. The teachers' salient beliefs for each of the primary constructs were further examined to determine their degree of contribution. Differences between various teacher populations for both intent and the three primary constructs were also investigated. The data were obtained using survey research (N = 800 Ohio teachers, randomly selected and stratified by grade level and state region). Backward solution multiple regression and analysis of variance techniques were used for statistical analyses. Results indicated that the attitude toward the behavior construct held the greatest influence of Ohio teachers' intent to implement all four strands of the science model; several salient beliefs for each of the three constructs significantly contribute to the constructs; and significant differences exist between various teacher populations for both intent and the three constructs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Promoting female achievement in the sciences: Research & implications

It is anticipated that by the year 2000 Canadian women will make up approximately 50% of the Canadian labour force. Despite this seemingly positive trend toward equitable gender-based participation in the labour force, females are extremely under represented in the scientific and technological fields (Statistics Canada, 1993). Females who are excluded or exclude themselves from the study of mathematics and science, limit career options and advancement opportunities in areas that drive and dominate social and economic trends. The underutilization of females in careers dependent upon science and mathematics expertise extends beyond the issue of individual actualization of potential, and has important consequences for society; significantly, as a threat to the economic prosperity of the nation. The key questions associated with this problem are: What are the factors which delimit and enhance female participation and achievement in the sciences? What can counsellors, educators and parents do to change this trend? Previous research has explored several dimensions, however, the greatest emphasis has been given to the particular barriers girls and women face. Relatively limited work has been given to factors associated with female success in the sciences. This paper reviews our current understanding of the problem, and describes a current research study that attempts to address some of the problems associated with previous theory and research in this area.     

The use of accelerometry in adolescents and its implementation with non-wear time activity diaries in free-living conditions

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a non-wearing time activity diary (hereafter non-wear activity diary) when using accelerometry in adolescents to provide insight into their physical activity levels. In total, 213 Belgian adolescents (89 boys, 124 girls) were eligible for this study. Adolescents wore an accelerometer for seven consecutive days and kept a non-wear activity diary. On the last day, they completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents. The differences between the accelerometer data with and without use of the non-wear activity diary were significant for all physical activity intensities according to the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Bland-Altman plots showed that with more time spent in any physical activity intensity, the difference between including and not including the non-wear activity diary increased. The correlation coefficient between the International Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents and the accelerometer data increased when the non-wear activity diary was included. Differences in the percentage of adolescents reaching the physical activity recommendations between the accelerometer data only and the accelerometer with the non-wear activity diary were significant. We conclude that if the non-wear activity diary data are not included, some adolescents could be misclassified as not being physically active according to the physical activity recommendations. It is therefore recommended to use a non-wear activity diary for gaining insight into the physical activity levels of individuals.     

Professional learning communities in Singapore and Shanghai: implications for teacher collaboration

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been recognised as having the potential to raise the quality of teachers, teaching and student learning through structured teacher collaboration, and have been featured prominently in Singapore and Shanghai – both considered top-performing Asian societies in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Although embedded in education systems that are considered centralised, there are still significant differences. Drawing out key implications from the experiences of Singapore and Shanghai, this paper highlights the potential challenges in implementing PLCs. These challenges include heavy teacher workload, ambiguities in the understanding and implementation of PLCs, and hierarchical work structures. The discussions emanating from the comparison between Singapore and Shanghai PLCs seek to contribute towards the international literature on fostering teacher collaboration through PLCs, which has been predominantly Western-centric.     

Back to Basics: A Bilingual Advantage in Infant Visual Habituation

Comparisons of cognitive processing in monolinguals and bilinguals have revealed a bilingual advantage in inhibitory control. Recent studies have demonstrated advantages associated with exposure to two languages in infancy. However, the domain specificity and scope of the infant bilingual advantage in infancy remains unclear. In the present study, 114 monolingual and bilingual infants were compared in a very basic task of information processing—visual habituation—at 6 months of age. Bilingual infants demonstrated greater efficiency in stimulus encoding as well as in improved recognition memory for familiar stimuli as compared to monolinguals. Findings reveal a generalized cognitive advantage in bilingual infants that is broad in scope, early to emerge, and not specific to language.