Extending science beyond the classroom door: Learning from students' experiences with the Choice,Control and Change (C3) curriculum

This article describes the experiences of seventh‐grade students living in high poverty areas of New York City who participated in the Choice, Control and Change (C3) science curriculum. Data were collected from eight case study students in the form of individual interviews, classroom observations, and student artifacts. Analysis of these data revealed that students were able to extend their C3 science understandings beyond the classroom door by developing and expressing science agency in the following ways: (1) critically analyze the conditions of their food environment, (2) purposefully make healthier choices, and (3) expand the food and activity options available to themselves and others. Through participation in the C3 curriculum, and the science content and practices addressed therein, students began to view their worlds with a more critical mindset and to devise ways to transform themselves and the conditions of their own and others' lives. Based on the findings, we propose taking a closer look at how we might create meaningful and relevant learning opportunities for students through connecting school science with issues of personal and social significance in students' lives outside of school. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 244–269, 2012     

Estudio del proceso de clasificación: ¿Concepción digital o analógica?

Resumen

El autor después de exponer los dos modelos (analógico y digital) que los psicólogos han empleado hasta hoy para describir el proceso de clasificación, propone desde un punto de vista genético una crítica de dicha alternativa.

Para explicar el fenómeno de la clasificación, los psicólogos han propuesto dos modelos: el digital (según el cual pertenecer a una clase es cuestión de todo o nada) y el analógico (que explica la formación de las clases en torno a un prototipo). Sin embargo, la Psicología Genética argumenta que para los niños los prototipos serán diferentes a edades diferentes; para un mismo sujeto el prototipo podría variar según el contexto y los objetivos de la clasificación. Para el enfoque genético ambas concepciones no deben ser consideradas como excluyentes o incompatibles. A partir de los seis años de edad, ambas pueden ser adecuadas para describir las relaciones de semejanza entre objetos, ya que los niños o bien optan por una u otra manera o escogen ambas.     

Un programa para la enseñanza de la comprensión de ideas principales de textos expositivos

Resumen

Este artículo presenta una investigación llevada a cabo con niños de 5.° curso de EG B (11 años) los cuales fueron instruidos en la captación de ideas prinápales de textos expositivos con estructura enumerativa y comparativa, y en la formation de la macroestructura textual. Un grupo de niños de un colegio fueron entrenados con una metodología de instrucción directa mientras otro grupo equivalente de un centro distinto sirvió como grupo de control. Se tomaron tres tipos de medidas dependientes tras la lectura de diversos textos con un diseño pretest- postest incluyendo cada uno de ellos varias pruebas. El primer tipo de medidas se refería a la captación de ideas prinápales mientras el segundo y el tercero medían la conáencia de estructura textual y el recuerdo respectivamente. Los resultados mostraron una ejecución significativamente mejor del grupo experimental en el postest con respecto al grupo control en la mayor parte de las medidas dependientes. Tras un período de seguimiento de varios meses se aplicaron de nuevo algunas pruebas manteniéndose las mejoras del grupo experimental.     

Learning to teach science in urban schools by becoming a researcher of one’s own beginning practice

An urgent goal for science teacher educators is to prepare teachers to teach science in meaningful ways to youth from nondominant backgrounds. This preparation is challenging, for it asks teachers to critically examine how their pedagogical practices might adaptively respond to students and to science. It asks, essentially, for new teachers to become researchers of their own beginning practice. This study explores the story of Ben as he coauthored a transformative action research project in an urban middle school as part of a teacher education program and, later, over his first year of teaching at that same school. We describe how Ben and his partner teacher created innovative spaces for science learning. This offered Ben an opportunity to make some of his deeply engrained pedagogical beliefs come alive within a context of distributed expertise, which provided for him a space of moderate risk where he could afford the chances of failure without undermining how he felt about his own capacity as a teacher. Our study highlights the importance of creating reform opportunities within the context of teacher education programs that may help beginner teachers construct positive images of teaching that they can hold on to in their future practice.     

Effectiveness of bibliographic searches performed by paediatric residents and interns assisted by librarians. A randomised controlled trial

Background: Considerable barriers still prevent paediatricians from successfully using information retrieval technology. Objectives: To verify whether the assistance of biomedical librarians significantly improves the outcomes of searches performed by paediatricians in biomedical databases using real‐life clinical scenarios. Methods: In a controlled trial at a paediatric teaching hospital, nine residents and interns were randomly allocated to an assisted search group and nine to a non‐assisted (control) group. Each participant searched Pub Med and other online sources, performing pre‐determined tasks including the formulation of a clinical question, retrieval and selection of bibliographic records. In the assisted group, participants were supported by a librarian with ≥5 years of experience. The primary outcome was the success of search sessions, scored against a specific assessment tool. Results: The median score of the assisted group was 73.6 points interquartile range (IQR = 13.4) vs. 50.4 (IQR = 17.1) of the control group. The difference between median values in the results was 23.2 points (95% CI 4.8–33.2), in favour of the assisted group (P‐value, Mann–Whitney U test: 0.013). Conclusions: The study has found quantitative evidence of a significant difference in search performance between paediatric residents or interns assisted by a librarian and those searching the literature alone.     

Improving Science and Literacy Learning for English Language Learners: Evidence from a Pre-service Teacher Preparation Intervention

This paper present findings from a pre-service teacher development project that prepared novice teachers to promote English language and literacy development with inquiry-based science through a modified elementary science methods course and professional development for cooperating teachers. To study the project’s impact on student learning, we administered a pre and post assessment to students (N = 191) of nine first year elementary teachers (grades 3 through 6) who experienced the intervention and who taught a common science unit. Preliminary results indicate that (1) student learning improved across all categories (science concepts, writing, and vocabulary)—although the effect varied by category, and (2) English Language Learner (ELL) learning gains were on par with non-ELLs, with differences across proficiency levels for vocabulary gain scores. These results warrant further analyses to understand the extent to which the intervention improved teacher practice and student learning. This study confirms the findings of previous research that the integration of science language and literacy practices can improve ELL achievement in science concepts, writing and vocabulary. In addition, the study indicates that it is possible to begin to link the practices taught in pre-service teacher preparation to novice teacher practice and student learning outcomes.     

What Is the Impact of Computer Literacy on the Academic Performance of D-learning Students？

Due to the globalization and the spread of the Internet, distance learning （D-learning） has gained extraordinary impulse in recent years by classes broadcasted by Websites and assignments fulfilled by students in their own computers. D-learning facilitates the access to education to those people who are working or have low buying power due to its reduced cost and time convenience. Although D-learning has existed in the world for over 150 years, only in the last decades, it has become the focus of academic studies and researches in a systematic way. In this context, the objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of computer literacy on the academic performance of the D-learning students of Faculdade lnterativa COC--EAD （COC--D-learning Interactive College）, P61o Lafaiete （Lafaiete Branch）, Ribeirao Preto. The research consisted of a questionnaire with 21 qualitative dichotomous questions, concerning the level of knowledge and mastery of information techdologies, besides the gender and academic performance （weighted average and marks of the last module）. The data were tabulated, being considered two main variables： （a） academic performance, represented by the marks of the last module; and （b） computer literacy, represented by the sum of the questions concerning this matter. The data were analyzed statistically, and the correlation between the two variables considered was analyzed by Pearson＇s Correlation Test. The interviews of the 54 interviewees （24 males （44.45%） and 30 females （55.55%）） taking the business administration course were analyzed. The correlation coefficient r = 0.303 indicates that there is a meaningful correlation between the students＇ academic performance （marks） and their computer literacy, that is, the greater the computer literacy, the better the marks obtained by these students in the D-learning course. D-learning has computing as its main tool, theretbre, the students with less computer literacy find barriers in D-learning, which o ref