Drama activities as ideational resources for primary‐grade children in urban science classrooms

In this study we explored how dramatic enactments of scientific phenomena and concepts mediate children's learning of scientific meanings along material, social, and representational dimensions. These drama activities were part of two integrated science‐literacy units, Matter and Forest, which we developed and implemented in six urban primary‐school (grades 1st–3rd) classrooms. We examine and discuss the possibilities and challenges that arise as children and teachers engaged in scientific knowing through such experiences. We use Halliday's (1978. Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press) three metafunctions of communicative activity—ideational, interpersonal, and textual—to map out the place of the multimodal drama genre in elementary urban school science classrooms of young children. As the children talked, moved, gestured, and positioned themselves in space, they constructed and shared meanings with their peers and their teachers as they enacted their roles. Through their bodies they negotiated ambiguity and re‐articulated understandings, thus marking this embodied meaning making as a powerful way to engage with science. Furthermore, children's whole bodies became central, explicit tools used to accomplish the goal of representing this imaginary scientific world, as their teachers helped them differentiate it from the real world of the model they were enacting. Their bodies operated on multiple mediated levels: as material objects that moved through space, as social objects that negotiated classroom relationships and rules, and as metaphorical entities that stood for water molecules in different states of matter or for plants, animals, or non‐living entities in a forest food web. Children simultaneously negotiated meanings across all of these levels, and in doing so, acted out improvisational drama as they thought and talked science. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 302–325, 2010     

Resilience and loss in work identities: A narrative analysis of some retired teachers’ work‐life histories

The article examines the importance of ‘emotional labour’ in the constitution of the ‘teacherly‐self’. Deriving from a research project on work and social identity, the article explores the ways teachers have negotiated the radical changes in the profession in recent years, and uses the notion of ‘teacher resilience’ to explore the ways teachers have reacted to the effects of neo‐liberal reforms to education; reforms that have powerfully impacted on the more child‐centred ways of working in the classroom and school environment. Using narrative analysis of the work‐life histories of these retired teachers, recorded using oral history methodology, the authors examine structures of feeling that turn on notions of emotional labour and commitment, resilience and loss in relation to the occupational identity of teachers.     

“Brains before ‘beauty’?” High achieving girls,school and gender identities

In recent years educational policy on gender and achievement has concentrated on boys' underachievement, frequently comparing it with the academic success of girls. This has encouraged a perception of girls as the “winners” of the educational stakes and assumes that they no longer experience the kinds of gender inequalities identified in earlier studies. However, trying to balance academic achievement with being seen as a “proper girl” presents girls with difficult challenges, particularly in terms of being accepted and approved of by classmates and securing the attention of teachers. This paper explores the views of a group of high achieving 12‐ to 13‐year‐old girls who indicate that being regarded as “clever” continues to be negotiated within acceptable frameworks of femininity.     

The Draw‐An‐Environment Test Rubric (DAET‐R): exploring pre‐service teachers’ mental models of the environment

The use of drawings as representations of personal mental models or images is one method of analyzing personal beliefs. This article discusses the development of the Draw‐An‐Environment Test and Rubric (DAET‐R) for assessing the mental models or images of the environment held by pre‐service teachers. It also provides results of preliminary research using the DAET‐R to assess pre‐service teachers’ personal beliefs and understandings about the environment, as interpreted from their drawings. Results of this pilot study using the DAET‐R for scoring early childhood pre‐service teachers’ drawings of the environment suggest that the participants’ mental models of the environment are incomplete. Results of this study also show that the DAET‐R can provide information about pre‐service teachers’ beliefs about the environment useful to teacher educators in the development and delivery of environmental education.     

Student-centred anti-smoking education: Comparing a classroom-based and an out-of-school setting

The present study monitored a student-centred educational anti-smoking intervention with fifth graders by focusing on their cognitive achievement and intrinsic motivation. In order to assess the potential influence of the setting on self-directed learning, the intervention was conducted in two different learning environments: a classroom-based group in class at school; and an out-of-school group in an outreach setting at a youth camp. A control group didn’t experience any specific intervention. Outcomes were assessed with an achievement test and the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Although in both learning settings similar cognitive levels were achieved, the out-of-school group showed a larger decrease in cognitive achievement and lower intrinsic motivation scores for interest and perceived choice. This empirical study adds new evidence to student-centred learning schemes in different learning environments, especially in an interdisciplinary context.     

Human cumulative culture in the laboratory: Effects of (micro) population size

Traditionally, experiments on social learning (in both humans and nonhumans) involve dyads, with an experimenter or experimenter-trained conspecific serving as the demonstrator and the participant as the observer. But social learning in nature often involves multiple potential models, and the models themselves were once learners. We discuss our studies of social learning by adult humans in interactive group settings in the absence of formal demonstrations by experimenters, which tracked transmission over multiple learner generations. In these experiments, we found evidence for cumulative learning over generations. This has allowed us to manipulate learning conditions in order to test hypotheses regarding the necessary conditions for cumulative culture. We also report results from a further experiment using similar methods, which compared conditions of varying cohort size. Participants were given the task to build a paper airplane to fly as far as possible. Contrary to expectations, there was no advantage for larger cohort sizes, in terms of the cumulative effects observed.     

Use of saliva for assessment of stress and its effect on the immune system prior to gross anatomy practical examinations

The objective of this study was to determine the longitudinal effects of a series of stressful gross anatomy tests on the immune system. Thirty‐six freshman occupational therapy students completed a written stress evaluation survey, and saliva samples were obtained at baseline and prior to each of three timed‐practical gross anatomy tests. Cortisol, secretory IgA (sIgA), and IL‐12 concentrations were measured within the salivary samples by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The total scores from the stress surveys were used as markers for environmental stress. Data were compiled for each student at baseline and prior to each examination and were compared by repeated‐measures MANOVA and Pearson's correlation test. Following normalization for protein concentration and flow rate, the concentrations of IL‐2, IL‐6, IL‐12, and sIgA progressively increased from baseline to the third test. Cortisol concentrations, following normalization for flow rate, were highest prior to the first test and became significantly reduced prior to second and third test. Prior to second and third test, salivary concentrations of IL‐6, IL‐2, IL‐12, and sIgA were significantly correlated (P < 0.05). In contrast, prior to third test, there was a negative correlation between salivary concentrations of cortisol and IL‐12 (P < 0.05). Progressive increases in salivary sIgA, IL‐6, IL‐2, and IL‐12 concentrations from the first to the third test coincident to decreased salivary cortisol suggest that the initial examination stressors precede significant effects on the immune system. These data suggest that there may be latent effects of examination stress on the immune system and that saliva can be used to predict these effects. Anat Sci Educ. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

The participation of schools in the recruitment of teachers: evaluating new procedures in Germany

Traditionally, in Germany, the centralized state school administration oversees the staffing of its schools. Specifically, the administration assigns new teachers to designated schools. During the last decade, some German Bundesländer have established new procedures for hiring new teachers. Since 1997 the Bundesland Nordrhein‐Westfalen (NRW) has implemented a new recruitment system. Now local schools can advertise their own teacher vacancies and select among candidates. The purpose of this is to support the school in developing and realizing a special ‘school profile’: a certain pedagogical programme that is distinctive for a school. The results of the empirical study show that the schools in general appreciate the new staffing procedure very much. They like it because now the school has the opportunity to select among different candidates on the basis of a personal appraisal. Support for the school profile seems to be not so important. So this innovative procedure is very well accepted—but not for the reason it was originally installed for.

En Allemagne le processus de sélection et d'embauche d'enseignants est traditionnellement géré par la commission scolaire. L'inspection scolaire attribue les instituteurs aux écoles à partir de listes de candidats. Au cours des dix dernières années, quelques Bundesländer ont toutefois introduit une nouvelle forme d'embauche. Le Bundesland Rhénanie‐du‐Nord‐Westphalie (NRW) a également établi un nouveau système de recrutement en 1997. Les écoles elles‐mêmes peuvent mettre en concours leurs postes libres et faire leur choix parmi les candidats. Cette procédure vise à soutenir les écoles dans leurs efforts à développer un profil pédagogique particulier et de le réaliser. Les résultats d'évaluations montrent que les écoles apprécient beaucoup cette nouvelle forme d'embauche, puisque elles ont désormais la possibilité de faire leur choix à partir d'une impression personnelle. Par contre, l'aspect de soutien du profil pédagogique ne semble pas avoir autant d'importance pour les écoles. Cette nouvelle forme est donc très appréciée— mais pas forcément pour les raisons pour lesquelles elle a été introduite.

Tradicionalmente son las autoridades escolares en Alemania quienes realizan el procedimiento de la selección y contratación del cuerpo docente. A base de las listas de los solicitantes, las autoridades reparten a los docentes capacitados entre los centros educativos. Sin embargo, algunos estados federales han implementado, en los últimos diez años, un nuevo procedimiento de contratación del profesorado. Desde 1997, el estado federal alemán de Renania del Norte‐Westfalia (NRW) ha establecido un nuevo sistema de ingreso en la función pública docente. En consecuencia de ello, los mismos centros educativos ahora ya tienen toda la autonomía para ofrecer un empleo y eligir a sus candidatos. El objetivo de este procedimiento es de apoyar los centros educativos tanto en el desarrollo del perfil escolar específico como en la realización del mismo en la práctica. Las investigaciones empíricas demuestran que los centros estiman en mucho este nuevo procedimiento de empleo. Lo aprecian porque tienen la posibilidad de escoger, en virtud de una impresión personal, el candidato apropiado. Si éste apoya o no el perfil escolar les parece ser de menos trascendencia. De modo que se aprecia mucho este nuevo procedimiento de empleo aunque no sea por la razón pensada.

Traditionell wird in Deutschland der Prozess der Auswahl und Einstellung von Lehrern durch die Schulbehörden vollzogen. Auf der Basis von Bewerberlisten weist die Schulaufsicht ausgebildete Lehrer den Schulen zu. Im Laufe der letzten zehn Jahre haben jedoch einige Bundesländer ein neues verfahren der Lehrereinstellung eingeführt. Seit 1997 hat auch das Bundesland Nordrhein‐Westfalen (NRW) ein neues Rekrutierungssystem etabliert. Jetzt können Schulen selbst ihre freien Lehrerstellen ausschreiben und zwischen Bewerbern auswählen. Der Zweck dieses Verfahrens ist es, die Schulen in der Entwicklung und praktischen Realisierung ihres besonderen Schulprofils zu unterstützen. Die Ergebnisse der empirischen Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Schulen dieses neue Einstellungsverfahren sehr schätzen. Sie schätzen es, weil die Schule nunmehr die Möglichkeit hat, zwischen geeigneten Bewerbern aufgrund des persönlichen Eindrucks zu entscheiden. Die Unterstützung des Schulprofils scheint für die Schulen weniger bedeutsam zu sein. So wird dieses neue Verfahren also sehr geschätzt—aber nicht aus dem Grund, weswegen es eingeführt worden ist.     

Evaluation of the KA24 (Knowledge Access 24) service for health and social care staff in London and the south-east of England. Part 2: qualitative

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this two-part paper is to identify the main transferable lessons learned from both the quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the KA24 (Knowledge Access 24) service of online databases and selected full-text journals for health and social care staff in London and the south-east of England. The objectives of the qualitative evaluation were to assess the enablers and barriers to usage, and to assess the impact of the service on patient care. METHODS: Telephone interviews (n = 65) and a questionnaire survey (n = 296) were conducted with various types of user, in various Trust settings. Some non-users were also contacted. Selection of interviewees and questionnaire recipients was not random, and aimed to cover all groups of users representatively. RESULTS: Results show that policy goals were being delivered, with indications of changes to clinical practice, and improved clinical governance. Promotion, training and support needs to be extensive, and tailored to needs, but users are not always aware they need training. The sharing of passwords cast doubts on the reliability of some usage data. CONCLUSIONS: Digital health library services, delivered at the point of care, are changing the way some clinicians practise. A combination of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods are needed to assess digital library services.