1, 2, 3, 4: Infusing Quantitative Literacy into Introductory Biology

Biology of the twenty-first century is an increasingly quantitative science. Undergraduate biology education therefore needs to provide opportunities for students to develop fluency in the tools and language of quantitative disciplines. Quantitative literacy (QL) is important for future scientists as well as for citizens, who need to interpret numeric information and data-based claims regarding nearly every aspect of daily life. To address the need for QL in biology education, we incorporated quantitative concepts throughout a semester-long introductory biology course at a large research university. Early in the course, we assessed the quantitative skills that students bring to the introductory biology classroom and found that students had difficulties in performing simple calculations, representing data graphically, and articulating data-driven arguments. In response to students'' learning needs, we infused the course with quantitative concepts aligned with the existing course content and learning objectives. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated by significant improvement in the quality of students'' graphical representations of biological data. Infusing QL in introductory biology presents challenges. Our study, however, supports the conclusion that it is feasible in the context of an existing course, consistent with the goals of college biology education, and promotes students'' development of important quantitative skills.     

Love,Loss and Magic: Connecting Author and Story1

The themes of love, loss and magic have been enduring themes in fairytales, myths, legends and fantasy within the genre of children's literature. These stories frequently depict young protagonists who have been ‘orphaned’ in some way—for example, through death, betrayal, absence, rejection or unexplained disappearance. In many of these narratives an important feature is the power of the story to grip and hold its readers through the intervention of magic in its most sinister and beneficent form as well as the love and loyalty of friends and creatures drawn from the world of fantasy. What is seldom examined is the way in which the author's own biography of loss and love both informs and provides a major impetus to the stories they have written. This article explores the way in which the themes of love, loss and magic interconnect with two phenomenally successful contemporary children's writers. Using selected extracts from the work of Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo, the article suggests a dynamic synergy with the authors and their stories.     

Head Start Teaching Center: Outcome Evaluation of 3 Years of Participatory Training

The design and evaluation of the New England Head Start Teaching Center (NEHSTC), one of 14 federally funded programs created to test the efficacy of participatory, hands-on training for enhancing Head Start service delivery is the focus of this article. The unique characteristics of the NEHSTC and the outcome evaluation results from 3 years of training will be discussed. The findings demonstrate the NEHSTC was successful in implementing high quality, participatory training within the context of an ongoing Head Start program. Various Head Start staff who participated in the NEHSTC trainings demonstrated gains in knowledge, skills, and attitudes compared to similar Head Start employees who did not receive training. The positive findings suggest that participatory training should be included in the menu of training options available. Because of the unique size and scope of Head Start, the success of ongoing efforts to improve the quality of its programs and services are particularly significant. Within Head Start, this discussion of quality enhancements via innovative training models is timely given the advent of the new performance standards and the restructuring of the Training and Technical Assistance system. Additionally, the findings are relevant for broader efforts to improve early care and education programs nationwide.     

A classroom-based model of language intervention for preschool language-impaired children: Principles and procedures

It is now generally recognized that a language impairment in preschool children may be predictive of later linguistic, reading, and academic difficulties. Language intervention procedures, derived from theoretically-based principles of language development and implemented in a child’s regular classroom environment, may benefit children at risk for persistent language and learning problems. This paper describes the development and application of individualized intervention procedures in a classroom for preschool language-impaired children. The discussion focuses on selected language development principles which helped determine the setting, timing, interactive participants, purpose, and content of the language intervention program. Resulting changes in language comprehension and production are reported based on individual classroom performance as well as a comparison of pre-and posttest scores for a range of comprehension skills. A version of this paper was presented at the Annual Conference of the Orton Dyslexia Society, November 5, 1987, San Francisco.     

Teacher‐Pupil Relationships in Adult Literacy Tuition

This paper attempts to trace the dynamic processes involved in the establishment and maintenance of teacher‐pupil relationships and to explore some of the frameworks to be found at the level of face‐to‐face interaction. The article draws upon a qualitative study of one‐to‐one adult literacy tuition (Braund, 1981), which utilises the perspectives, experiences and definitions of grass‐roots participants to provide illumination and insight into an essentially ‘closed’ world. To these everyday interpretations, concepts from social phenomenology and symbolic interactionism are applied. The study reveals the stage by stage evolution of tutor‐student relationships during which individual interpretations and definitions of the situation are combined through negotiation to form a tailor‐made working concensus within each dyad. It goes on to show how the seeds of change contained within each relationship cause it to be in a state of constant evolution leading ultimately to its metamorphosis or termination. This emerging pattern, or relationship ‘career’, provides a framework to an apparently unstructured situation and it is the analysis of this process which forms the basis of the paper.     

Women Scientists in Academia: Geographically Constrained to Big Cities, College Clusters, or the Coasts?

Women scientists in academia have been shown to be less geographically mobile than their male counterparts, a factor that may exacerbate gender inequities in faculty representation, tenure, and salary. This study examines the extent to which the jobs of academic women scientists are disproportionately concentrated in large cities, areas with many colleges and universities, and regions where most doctorates are granted. We also investigate whether jobs in these locations affect salary, tenure, full-time faculty status, and employment outside one's field of training in ways that differ for women and men. Our analysis is guided by arguments that geographic constraints on women's mobility are rooted in social factors, such as gender roles and mate selection patterns. Data are drawn from over 13,000 faculty respondents in the national Survey of Doctoral Recipients, representing 22 science and engineering disciplines and over 1,000 4-year colleges or universities. Regression analysis reveals that, irrespective of their family status, women faculty are more likely than their male counterparts to reside in doctoral production centers, areas with large clusters of colleges, and large cities. Responsibility for children intensifies women's geographic concentration more than marriage does and in ways that differ from men. Geographic concentration also appears generally more harmful to women's careers than to men's. Women in doctoral production centers are less likely to have tenure and more likely to work part time; those in larger cities are more likely to be in jobs off the tenure track. Locales with many colleges appear to present somewhat better career prospects for women.     

Context in Methods Course Learning: Lessons for partnership work

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K‐12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question “How does the classroom and school context of the field experience influence what prospective teachers learned in the methods courses?” This study examines the way two different cohorts of prospective elementary teachers who learned to teach in two different contexts define their own social studies pedagogical content knowledge. The students' espoused philosophies of education offer insight into how different models of integrated field experiences may impact on their beliefs about social studies teaching. Through this study we raise questions that should be considered in constructing methods courses linked to field experiences and suggest Bronfenbrenner's model as a tool for looking at these contextual influences.     

Response to “violence in our schools: Implications for teacher education,” volume 35 number 3

Dr. Morgan discusses the recommended content of economics courses, describes several significant projects in economics education, and provides sources from which teachers may obtain complete reports of these projects.