Contemporary approaches to learning science: technologically-mediated practical work

This paper describes the current state of science education in Arab states and anticipates some of the challenges faced by those states as they reform their science education. After discussing problems of illiteracy, access and quality we provide contextual information about the structure of the educational systems and describe recent efforts to reform them. We focus on issues pertaining to science curriculum and textbooks, language, religion, student learning in science, science teacher education and science education research and summarise the challenges and opportunities for research faced in each area. We conclude the paper by proposing a set of policy and research recommendations that could aid in the development of lasting solutions for recurring problems.     

Uncovering Students’ Environmental Identity: An Exploration of Activities in an Environmental Science Course

This study at a public high school in the Northeastern United States explores how students’ environmental identities are affected by various activities in an Environmental Science course. Data was collected as part of an ethnographic study involving an Environmental Science teacher and her tenth–twelfth grade students. The results focus on interviews with 10 students and the teacher, conducted at three points during the semester-long course. The findings illuminate ways in which students’ identities (environmental and consumer-materialist) are affirmed or disconfirmed during classroom activities, the importance of establishing personal connections with environmental issues, and challenges related to the teaching of controversial environmental issues.     

Shifting learning goals: from competent tool use to participatory media spaces in the emergent design process

Recently, the relationship between identity and learning has come front and center in discussions about how to design successful learning environments for youth who struggle in mainstream institutions. In this essay, I explore the role identity development plays in constructing learning environments for traditionally marginalized youth. While I agree with DeGennaro and Brown on the importance of identity development for learning, I stretch the relationship between these two constructs in several ways: First, I will argue that how we define “technology” and what that means for marginalized youth, particularly those who are assumed to be victims of the “digital divide” is a crucial aspect of the design of successful digital learning environments. Second, I discuss how identity is represented in these digital learning spaces, and analyze how meaning is constructed in multimodal spaces such as websites. Finally, I reflect on DeGennaro and Brown’s notion of “emergent design,” as a positive contribution to design research, and propose the idea of incorporating youths’ already existing competencies into the emergent design process.

Using Performance-Based Assessments to Prepare Safe Science Teachers

Standard 9 of the National Science Teachers Association Standards for Science Teacher Preparation is designed to ensure that science teacher preparation programs provide preservice science teachers with the knowledge and skills to understand and successfully engage students in a safe and ethical manner. This standard contains four components describing science teachers’ legal and ethical responsibilities, appropriate use of instructional materials (chemicals in particular), emergency procedures and safety equipment, and guidelines for proper use of living organisms in the classroom. In this article, we describe the requirements of Standard 9 and provide guidance on assessments that can be used to present evidence for preservice teachers’ competence in each of the four components.     

New Carpets for Old Brooms? Training teachers for the education industry

This article is a critique of the document The Education Industry and The National Competency Agenda, which was produced by members of the Schools and Curriculum Division of the federal Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) in April 1992. The authors examine the policy context in which the document was produced. They then go on to analyse the case for reform argued in this document, drawing attention to the mechanisms by which the document seeks to inform and persuade its educational audience. A detailed analysis and critique is made of its central assumptions in relation to teacher education, with a more appropriate agenda for reform of teacher education subsequently outlined.