ENGAGING SCIENCE: PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS�� NOTIONS OF ENGAGING SCIENCE LESSONS

If children are engaged in science lessons, their learning is likely to be better and, in the long term, careers in science and technology will remain open. Given that attitudes can develop early and be difficult to change, it is important for teachers of younger children to know how to foster engagement in science. This study identified what a cohort of 79 pre-service teachers in England considered to be engaging elementary science lessons and compared their notions with teacher behaviours known to be conducive to engagement. First, all brought beliefs about how to engage children in science lessons to their training. They tended to favour children’s hands-on activity as an effective means of fostering attentive participation in learning, although many had additional ideas. Nevertheless, the means and ends of their ‘pedagogies of engagement’ tended to be simple and narrow. Trainers need to ensure that notions of engagement are wide enough to cope with a variety of teaching situations, as when hands-on experience is not feasible, effective or appropriate. At the same time, teachers will need to recognise that one approach may not suit all learners. Without this, there is the risk that they will lack the skills to engage children in science. Nevertheless, these beliefs could offer a useful starting point for trainers who wish to widen pre-service teachers’ conceptions of engagement and increase their repertoire of teaching behaviours.     

Single-sex computer classes: An effective alternative

Conclusion Considering the technology gender gap that exists today, there can be no doubt that our current educational system is not engaging female students in technology or awakening them to possibilities of the technology industry as a career. Females are not afraid of computers or lack the ability to master computer skills, but they find the computer environment objectionable (http : / / www.aauw.org/2000/ techsavvybd.html). Several factors within the educational system heighten these objections and impede female progression through technology classes. It is these factors that our educational system must address. Single-sex computer classes offer female students the educational advantages of learning in a comfortable, non-threatening classroom environment where they are encouraged to enthusiastically participate in classroom discussions and activities (Kumagi, 1995). In these classes, curriculum may be adjusted to reflect the need females to see computers as productivity tools (Caplice, 1994). As a result of positive experiences gained while attending single-sex computer classes, females are more likely to pursue higher level computer classes. Although it is possible to argue that single-sex computer classes do not mirror the real world females must contend with once outside the classroom, they are, however, effective interim interventions to enable females to lessen the current technology gap (Kumagi, 1995).     

Impact of brief or extended extinction of a taste aversion on inhibitory associations: Evidence from summation,retardation, and preference tests

In five conditioned taste aversion experiments with rats, summation, retardation, and preference tests were used to assess the effects of extinguishing a conditioned saccharin aversion for three or nine trials. In Experiment 1, a summation test showed that saccharin aversion extinguished over nine trials reduced the aversion to a merely conditioned flavor (vinegar), whereas three saccharin extinction trials did not subsequently influence the vinegar aversion. Experiment 2 clarified that result, with unpaired controls equated on flavor exposure prior to testing; the results with those controls suggested that the flavor extinguished for nine trials produced generalization decrement during testing. In Experiment 3, the saccharin aversion reconditioned slowly after nine extinction trials, but not after three. Those results suggested the development of latent inhibition after more than three extinction trials. Preference tests comparing saccharin consumption with a concurrently available fluid (water in Experiment 4, saline in Experiment 5) showed that the preference for saccharin was greater after nine extinction trials than after three. However, saccharin preference after nine extinction trials was not greater, as compared with that for either latent inhibition controls (Experiments 4 and 5) or a control given equated exposures to saccharin and trained to drink saline at a high rate prior to testing (Experiment 5). Concerns about whether conditioned inhibition has been demonstrated in any flavor aversion procedure are discussed. Our findings help explain both successes and failures in demonstrating postextinction conditioned response recovery effects reported in the conditioned taste aversion literature, and they can be explained using a memory interference account.     

Performance Indicators and Quality Review in Australian Universities

This paper examines the relationship between sets of quantitative performance and diversity indicators and the qualitative banding of Australian universities made by the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Using factor analysis, three performance factors (Traditional Research University Performance, Teaching Performance and Competitive Research Performance) and four diversity factors (Size, Equity, Student Staff Ratios and Access) were obtained. Strong association was found between quality ranking and composite measures of performance. When factor‐based composite measures were used, quality rankings were significantly correlated with Traditional Research University Performance, Teaching Performance and Size, and negatively with Equity.     

Potential for knowledge in action? An analysis of Korean green energy related K3–12 curriculum and texts

While understanding green energy development and what drives it are important, there is increasing consensus that sustainability transitions concerning usage need to be viewed in terms of the place specific contexts, including education, that critically mold them. In order to support sustainability transitions, information and knowledge building are not enough; knowledge must be turned into action. This research examines the potential efficacy of Korea’s efforts in this regard via an analysis of K3–K12 geography education curriculum and texts vis-à-vis green energy content. There is scant disconnect between the curriculum and the texts analyzed, and, aside from the small shortcomings unearthed, analyses suggest that Korea is cogent of the ability of geography education and education for sustainable development to turn knowledge into action, thereby empowering civil society to drive its green energy transitions going forward.     

Organization of schooling: Achieving access and quality through inclusion

Conclusion Michael Fullan, Dean of Education at the University of Toronto and an acknowledged expert on educational change, reform and improvement, has noted that reform in special education ‘represents just about all the issues involved in bringing about educational reform.’ complexity and leadership are particularly difficult challenges. Fullan has noted that, ‘the solutions to inclusion are not easily achieved. It is complex both in the nature and degree of change required to identify and implement solutions that work. Given what change requires—persistence, coordination, follow-up, conflict resolution, and the like—leadership at all levels is required...’ (Fullan, 1991b). Organizational support for inclusive education must be in place at the provincial/state level, the regional/school district level, and at the school level. These structures, programmes and policies must deliver the support needed by classroom teachers and their students. We have set out specific ways that this can be done, consistent with an inclusive policy framework. The commitment to equity, as well as access and quality, requires continuing development by building on these approaches. In so doing, we can achieve better results for students with special needs while simultaneously creating more effective schools for all students. A former teacher and school principal, Gordon Porter is now director of student services for the public schools in Woodstock, New Brunswick. A well-known advocate for integrated education, he has been instrumental in developing inclusionary programmes for all students in the schools in the Woodstock area, and throughout the province of New Brunswick. Dr. Porter has conducted training in many parts of Canada as well as the United States. He is currently vice-chair of the Committee on Integrated Education of the International League of Societies for the Mentally Handicapped.     

Samples of stimuli,responses, and reinforcers: Effect of incongruent sample type,serial position,and mode of presentation

In two matching-to-sample experiments, pigeons’ performance with samples of stimuli (red and green), number of responses (1 and 20), and reinforcers (food and no food) was assessed. Samples of red, 20 responses, and food were associated with the red comparison stimulus, and samples of green, 1 response, and no food were associated with the green comparison stimulus. On interference trials, three sample types were presented on each trial, and two of the samples (congruent) were associated with the correct comparison and the third sample (incongruent), with the incorrect comparison. Performance on interference trials was compared with that on control trials in which either two (Experiment 1) or three (Experiment 2) congruent samples were presented. It was found that presentation of an incongruent sample reduced matching accuracy markedly, and about equally, whether samples were presented successively or in compound. Although the type of sample that was incongruent was without effect, matching accuracy declined strongly as the recency of the incongruent sample increased. Serial position of the incongruent sample also influenced the shape of the retention function on interference trials. Presentation of the incongruent sample either first or second resulted in accuracy decreasing across the retention interval, whereas presentation of the incongruent sample last in the input sequence resulted in increasing accuracy across the retention interval. The theoretical implications of the findings are considered.     

Teacher Evaluation, Leadership and Learning Organizations

This article presents the argument that meaningful teacher evaluation in schools can be an important catalyst for organizational learning and school improvement when it is linked to broader conceptions of leadership in schools. A state-of-the-art teacher evaluation, assessment and professional growth system is described and the manner in which this system is linked to leadership density, organizational learning, and school improvement is detailed. Findings from two contrasting case studies of schools implementing this new system are presented and implications of the findings for linking teacher evaluation systems, newer conceptions of school leadership, and school improvement are described.     

School Exclusions in England: Children's voices and adult solutions?

This paper examines the rise in school exclusions in England in the 1990s. It discusses the definitions and different types of exclusion and how policies towards exclusion have been changing. It considers the groups of students that have been, and remain, at the greatest risk of exclusion and the main reasons given by schools for excluding students. Particular attention is focused on the views of excluded children themselves, collated from a wide range of studies, including primary research with excluded students and some of their parents. The 1999 government initiative to cut exclusions by one third by the year 2002 is then considered. The paper argues that much more attention should be given to the opinions and ideas of young people themselves in the search for a solution to young people's disaffection with education and England's high rates of exclusion.