The democratic argument for science curriculum reform in Britain and Australia: 1935–1945

The dominance of “academicism” in science education can be shown over the last century. However in the period of this study, when access to a universal secondary education was the main thrust of social reconstruction in Britain and Australia, a key struggle was for a socially-centred general science. The struggle, concerned the terms on which “the spirit of Science alive in the world”, could enter and transform education in schools to meet human needs. The epistemological arguments of the reformers were pragmatic. This study, set initially in an earlier period of depressive capitalism, is an account of how curriculum and cultural change was mediated by educational actors, employing pragmatic arguments for reform which drew on the metaphoric power of a scientific achievements which emanated from their society, to pursue democratic agendas within their workplace and locality.     

Technology in the elementary school: Blind variation and selective retention

Teaching technology without reference to the human need which calls for it, not only gives students the wrong idea about the nature of technology, it also hides the importance of the testing of artifacts for operation in the relevant environment. The research reported in this paper began with the trialing of stories designed to show the social need which triggered new invention, in the appropriate period of history, through the eyes of contemporary children of our pupils' age. The pupils were asked to design their working models through drawings, to construct them, and then to test and evaluate them. The model used to understand the interplay between the ideas in the minds of pupils, and the selection process which decided on their worthiness, is one drawn from evolutionary epistemology. Data shows that some elementary school children do recognise the mental nature of the design activity as the combination of parts of remembered mechanisms, and the grounds for selection as fitness for the job in the chosen environment. This approach goes some way towards distinguishing aspects of technological education from scientific education, including the high value accorded to creativity and personal invention in technology.     

Establishing open and critical discourses in the science classroom: Reflecting on initial difficulties

This paper presents a reflective account of a science teacher’s endeavours to use the referent of critical constructivism to transform her pedagogical practices. The context of her action research was a Year 10 Bioethics unit taught at an independent girls’ school in Perth, Western Australia. Students were provided with opportunities to engage in open and critical discourses; many did, but a few were unwilling to participate in accordance with the teacher’s intentions. We illustrate the disruptive influence of these “dissident” students and explore the reasons for their unwillingness to suspend their disbelief in a new way of knowing (and of being) that involves a radical change in the role of language in the classroom. We conclude with recommendations for epistemological pluralism and the careful use of critical discourse for re-negotiating teaching and learning roles and creating conditions for open discourse to flourish.     

Introducing technology education: Using teachers' questions as a platform for professional development

This paper explores the issues and concems identified by a small group of teachers implementing technology ideas using the national document,A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994a), represented in four key questions they posed as a result of reflection upon their existing ideas and practices, early in the study. These same issues and concerns framed their later experiences as the study progressed. The case study of one of the teachers is used, to illustrate how the teachers implemented technology education working from their own perspectives and tackling issues and concerns that made sense to them. By reviewing the teachers' own questions about technology implementation, it is becoming, clear that what may be important for professional development in technology education is related to the questions that the teachers themselves are asking about their own, beliefs and practices.     

Relationships between reading profiles and narrative writing abilities in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder

Reading and Writing - Reading and writing are distinct skill areas that influence each other across development. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are noted to exhibit challenges in both...     

Dynamik individueller Anpassungsprozesse

Sports science is predominantly understood as a theory aimed at practical application where sports performance and how it is influenced by sports training are central. The primary task of sports science is to develop technological regulations and prepare background knowledge for solving application problems in sports training. If one considers a theoretically reasoned training plan from this perspective, it is hardly possible according to the theory of sports science as it stands (Selujanov, 1999). The criticism expressed again and again is primarily orientated towards insufficient explanations and reasons for the selection of a certain training programme or the lack of reasons for selected load intensity and load duration as well as insufficient explanation for the athlete’s performance resulting from it. That means it is not possible to make exact statements about the impact of training over time, the right time for introducing it and the duration of its effect on performance. In the same way the identification of individual process models for training adaptations, i.e. combining training measures and individual performance development, are is an important research goal, both in terms of the theoretical and also the practical aspect of training (Tschiene, 1996; Tschiene, 1997). To be able to answer these questions, there are various ways of proceeding. With the goal of researching in detail basic phenomena of adjustment or effect of change in training adjustment, research in the last few years has been orientated increasingly towards time series analytical processes and antagonistic models. These processes are in a position to present or simulate the performance development of the individual as well as changes in the training. Both time series analytical processes and also antagonistic models (e. g. Performance-Potential-Model; PerPot), by an exact simulation of an individual’s training progress, allow for a prognosis of his performance development. For this both processes need differing inputs which quantify both daily training and also daily performance. The goal of this study is to represent the delayed dynamics of an individual adjustment process through time series analytical processes as well as at the same time to configure it through the PerPot-Model. This approach enables a static validation of the individual effect of the training and allows, in contrast to the classic pre-post measurements, an analysis of the intra-individual relationships and structures or more accurate analyses of the impact of training over time, the right time for introducing it and the duration of its effect on performance (Schmitz, 1989). Moreover, as part of the analysis of the present training and performance data, the prognostic quality of the process is tested and the currently differing parameters for judging the quality of the models and the prognoses associated with them are presented and discussed.