An exploration of issues surrounding teaching the nature of science to pre-service primary school teachers

This article considers the impact of the New Public Management culture on Irish education and calls for a debate in relation to the prevailing bureaucratic model of accountability. The influence of the Lisbon Agenda (2000) on education planning is identified and the 2005/7 Education Strategy Statement is analysed using the relevant OECD framework. This analysis reveals the preponderance of macro policy objectives over individual learning objectives. The implications of this finding are considered in the case of two of the five goals of this Strategy Statement, those dealing with the personal and social goals of education and education quality. The paper calls for alternative indicators that will achieve balance between process and product, between responsive and contractual accountability and between individual and system outcomes. Some hopeful developments are identified.     

小学科学课程与ICT文献综述

本文献主要回顾了自1989年以来小学科学课程的发展以及在科学课堂中应用ICT的研究。文章讨论了ICT对小学科学课程中教师与学习者的角色关系、教师的专业知识、程序技能和科学内容之间的平衡、形成性评价的应用等方面所产生的影响。此外,还提供了一套目前ICT被应用于促进优秀科学教学方式的批判性评估。最后,作者提倡要对ICT的各种应用以及它们对促进小学科学课程中儿童的学习有何种促进潜能开展系统研究,并为那些旨在促进儿童小学科学学习经验的软、硬件开发者提出了建议和启示。     

Can they go it alone? Addressing criticisms of coteaching

This paper responds to Wassell and LaVan’s paper on the transition from a preservice coteaching experience to independent teaching as a beginning inservice teacher. Wassell and LaVan describe coteaching as an alternative to traditional teaching. In our response, we argue that coteaching can also be applied alongside independent teaching in preservice courses, as opposed to an alternative to independent teaching, which has been shown to alleviate some of the transition issues described by Wassell and LaVan. We then present a critical discussion of different models and vocabularies of coteaching which apply in different sociocultural settings to expand the concept of coteaching. We attempt to extend Wassell and LaVan’s use of Guba and Lincoln’s (Fourth generation evaluation, 1989) authenticity criteria from the research methodology towards considering the criteria also as a framework for coteaching as practice for preservice and cooperating teachers. Finally, we reflect on the role of critical ethnography in Wassell and LaVan’s study in terms of the researchers’ intervention and whether improvements in the transition can be effectively introduced which do not require such intervention. We conclude our discussion with some suggestions to take forward this important work.

Access for all? A survey of health librarians in the north‐west of England on provision of information to patients

This study examined the role that health librarians could play in helping patients to find information. A questionnaire survey was sent out to 50 health librarians in the north-west of England. It examined the following: the type of library and users, access to information for patients, librarians' attitudes to provision of information to patients and their knowledge of other sources available to their users. Ninety-seven per cent of librarians said that they could recommend quality information sources to patients, but many suggested that there were practical problems in allowing patients to use health libraries due to lack of appropriate resources, facilities and funding. Advantages of health library involvement in patient information include having a local point of contact for patients and the ability of librarians to find, evaluate and organize good-quality resources. However, health library staff may not have enough time to answer enquiries from the public and may lack training in dealing with patients. Innovation, especially in developing on-line services, could offer a way to provide a service without overloading the physical requirements of a library. Librarians could also collaborate with other staff to improve patient information.     

Design of an evidence-based diversity workshop to support participation of older people in their community care

Diversity is what makes a person unique, with the intersection of diversity characteristics potentially a strength or a barrier to accessing healthcare, and thereby affecting health and well-being outcomes. Many older people with diverse needs are not accessing appropriate services to meet their needs, leading to suboptimal health and well-being. Community aged care workers are at the frontline, working with diverse older people with complex needs; yet there is a dearth of training available in this sphere. This paper outlines the development and pilot evaluation of a diversity training workshop for managers and frontline community aged care workers. The aim of the workshop was to empower the workforce to support increased participation of older people with diverse needs in their own care, to ultimately lead to their improved health and well-being.

Workshop development was underpinned by sound education principles, a competency framework and research evidence. First iteration of the workshop underwent pilot testing with three groups, two in metropolitan Melbourne (n = 31) and one in regional Victoria (n = 10), Australia. Feedback was gathered via an independent observer (field notes), pre- and post-workshop surveys, and phone interviews with participants 3-month post-workshop. Pilot data and feedback informed changes to workshop content (type of knowledge, application of knowledge and skills), workshop structure and androgogical (adult learning) approach.

An evidence-informed diversity training workshop was developed through an iterative process, with the aim of enhancing knowledge, skills and attitudes of community aged care workers. This approach has developed a workshop that aims to better meet the needs of an aged care workforce, so that they may better support older people with diverse needs to increase engagement and participation in their care, optimizing their health and well-being.     

Introduction Teaching Situations as Object of Research: Empirical Studies within Theoretical Perspectives

This volume gathers contributions that share the same double concern: to focus on teaching situations in classrooms, especially the work of the teacher, and to be strongly anchored in original theoretical frameworks allowing to take the classroom situation as unit of analysis. The contributions are not a representative sample of all research sharing this focus worldwide. The theoretical frameworks are grounded mainly (but not solely) in the theory of didactic situations (Brousseau, 1997) and the anthropological theory of didactics (Chevallard, 1992, 1999). There are 11 articles altogether, 9 of which present research works within the chosen theme and focus. The other two are commentary papers offering a reflection on studies of classroom situations from the point of view of other theoretical viewpoints. “Original” in the sense of having been developed specifically for research in mathematics education and not borrowed from other domains such as psychology, sociology, etc.