Pedagogy through the pearl metaphor: teaching as a process of ongoing refinement

Using the analytical tools of broadening, burrowing and storying and restorying, this narrative inquiry examines a middle school teachers’ knowledge of her pedagogical practices through the strand of pearls’ metaphor that she employs to explain her teaching to herself, a beginning teacher whom she mentors and ourselves as researchers. Throughout the discussion, careful attention is paid to the pearl metaphor’s emergent, novel qualities and how the metaphor is held and expressed in the teacher’s unfurling practice. In the final analysis, four significant themes are unpacked: (1) the image of teacher as curriculum maker; (2) the idea of pearls, non-pearls and yellowed pearls; and (3) the concept of metaphors and the nature of metaphorical truth. Finally, a discussion of the veracity of the strand of pearls as way to understand teaching practice concludes the article.     

危地马拉——玛雅不朽

北岛说:"一个人行走的范围,就是他的世界。"所以你毋宁去行走,去跋涉,不为抵达,只为远方。危地马拉是古代玛雅文化的发祥地,素有"森林之国"之称,据说在印第安语里,其意思是"森林茂密的土地"。让我们跟随着本文的作者一起探寻这座不朽的末日之城,领略通往天堂的路上遇见的最美风景!     

消逝的天堂:哈勒哈勒——阿塞伦路上的风光

现代化的发展往往意味着对美丽自然风光以及古老传统文化的破坏。在伊朗的哈勒哈勒——阿塞伦路上,沿途的美丽风光正在日渐消亡,传统木屋变成了混凝土房子,美丽的稻田变成了度假村别墅,村民们的生活方式也被迫改变……前不久的一天,在洛玛夫什——位于伊朗北部吉兰省的哈勒哈勒——阿塞伦路上的一个村庄,男人们驱赶着羊群,女人们清洁着羊毛。寒雾弥漫在空中,不久,严寒的天气就会把村民们和他们的家畜驱赶下阿尔伯兹山脉,以度过这个冬天。在"耶拉弗"期间——古波斯人们这样称呼暖季,牧羊人住在临时搭建在斜坡上的     

PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF A 5E LEARNING CYCLE LESSON PLAN ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT

The purpose of this paper is to describe the procedures and the analysis of an instrument designed to measure preservice teachers’ ability to develop appropriate 5E learning cycle lesson plans. The 5E inquiry lesson plan (ILP) rubric is comprised of 12 items with a scoring range of zero to four points per item. Content validity was determined through the expertise of a panel of five science educators. Sixty six preservice teachers enrolled in elementary science methods at three universities prepared lesson plans, which were scored by their instructors using the ILP rubric. Using a Pearson two-tailed correlation, inter-rater reliability was established at a value of 0.83. An exploratory factor analysis provided evidence of construct validity, with three factors. The factors included (1) explore, (2) engage/explain/elaborate, and (3) evaluate. In addition, a secondary analysis revealed the means and standard deviations of the students' performance on each of the phases of the 5E that include: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. The engage item held the highest mean rating, and the evaluation items had the lowest mean ratings. Examination of the instrument's structure in light of the 5E phases is discussed and provides directions for future revisions and research.