Piaget's theory and specific instruction: A response to Bereiter and Kohlberg

The present paper draws pedagogical implications from Piaget's theory in the light of Bereiter's critical response to Kohlberg's view against specific instruction. It argues that instruction can be more specific in some ways than Kohlberg suggested, e.g., in the teaching of social knowledge and in the structuring of cognitive processes that will eventually result in logical thinking. It shows the relevance of Piaget's theory to early childhood education and argues that specific instruction should take place within a developmental context and within the framework of a broad theory of knowledge.     

Expanding the Foundation: Climate Change and Opportunities for Educational Research

Human-caused climate change is a dominant global challenge. Unlike other disciplines and fields, there has as yet been only limited attention to climate change in educational research generally, and in educational foundations in particular. Education is key to assisting humanity in mitigating and adapting to climate change, and educational researchers working within diverse disciplinary and methodological traditions and a broad array of research contexts need to engage in this most pressing of challenges. We argue that the field needs a new commitment to a form of educational justice appropriately scaled to the size of the challenge we face. We address this gap by reviewing current thinking on the human dimensions of climate change and summarizing what research has been conducted in the area of climate change education as a means of identifying a range of possibilities for educational research and praxis.     

A blended model: simultaneously teaching a quantitative course traditionally,online, and remotely

As universities seek to bolster enrollment through distance education, faculty are tasked with maintaining comparable teaching/learning standards in traditional, blended, and online courses. Research has shown that there is an achievement gap between students taking courses exclusively offered online versus those enrolled in face-to-face classes. In an effort to mitigate these observed differences, the School of Business faculty at the research institution investigated various course models to meet the needs of a diverse, non-traditional, and multifaceted student population. Ultimately, a blended course model for statistics and quantitative method courses was developed that allowed students to choose between online, remote (via interactive television), and traditional course delivery modes each week. This model is more flexible and agile than existing blended courses that have more static components. Multiple regression analysis, χ², and t-tests are used to demonstrate the efficacy of our model in maintaining student performance standards.     

Creating the 2016 BISAC Subjects: Process and Updates

BISG’s Subject Codes committee follows a structured, consensus-driven process to update and maintain more than 4500 subject headings. The latest version added 93 subject codes, changed 68 literals, reactivated a previously inactive code, and deactivated 11 subjects. Changes affected 22 of the 54 main subject areas.     

Does science education need the history of science?

This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the training of prospective vocational scientists and in educating the broader public about the nature of science. First it shows how historicizing science in the classroom can improve the pedagogical experience of science students and might even help them turn into more effective professional practitioners of science. Then it examines how historians of science can support the scientific education of the general public at a time when debates over "intelligent design" are raising major questions over the kind of science that ought to be available to children in their school curricula. It concludes by considering further work that might be undertaken to show how history of science could be of more general educational interest and utility, well beyond the closed academic domains in which historians of science typically operate.     

On-line Literature: The Challenge of Integrating Web-based Materials

This classroom research discusses the challenges of integrating face-to-face interactions with the use of on-line resources in secondary English classrooms. Examining the lesson plans of pre-service and early career teachers in the US, I found that the uses of on-line resources were frequently neither coherent nor consistent with the goals and objectives teachers had planned for their lessons. As well, on-line resources rarely furthered teachers’ attempts to support students’ analytical or close reading of literary texts, but instead were used primarily to foster student engagement with the literature. Although on-line literature resources provide almost unimaginable possibilities for enriching classrooms, teachers must learn to identify and clarify their objectives for reading, and they must distinguish their objectives from those of website developers and sponsors. If we want on-line resources to transform our classrooms, then we must be willing and able to transform those materials, to translate them for our students through developing robust questions that will guide their viewings and readings. Additionally, we must acknowledge that on-line contexts may themselves change reading behaviours, and that when using the World-Wide Web, our local contexts matter greatly.     

Students’ experiences with/in integrated Environmental Studies Programs in Ontario

In Canada there exists a noteworthy educational initiative referred to as Environmental Studies Programs (ESPs). These secondary school programs are interdisciplinary, helping to link subject matter and encouraging student responsibility. The results of three case studies of Ontario ESPs indicate that program participation has ‘real world’ applications and creates a safe space for genuine dialogue and critical reflection, and that students experienced changes in environmental attitudes and behaviors as a result of program participation. These findings offer further documentation of the benefits of integrated ESPs, including increased student engagement, learning experiences that are practical and relevant to students’ lives, experiential learning that is memorable and opportunities for development of social and interpersonal skills.     

The Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis: Dementia-Care Training Influences on Job Satisfaction and Career Commitment

The present study compares changes in job satisfaction and career commitment among Alzheimer's care staff participating in a two-phase, state-level training collaborative to improve dementia care. Results reveal an increase in extrinsic job satisfaction and a decrease in career commitment. Findings could be related to the effects of both the training interventions and the time lag in data collection. Decreases in career identity depended on whether participants showed a deeper involvement in aging concerns with respect to future employment. Implications for the implementation of future interventions for direct-care staff within a context of organizational and systems-based change are discussed.