Toward the mark of empowering policies in elementary school science programs and teacher professional development

In this commentary, I discuss how policy initiatives play out in two different contexts for elementary school teachers yet produce very similar outcomes regarding teachers’ professional development and school science learning for elementary students. Ironically, the outcomes that we want see in elementary school science learning and professional development are not realized when policies are introduced that distract from practices that were working prior to new reforms.     

The Development of Perspective Taking: Understanding Differences in Information and Weighting

2 separate aspects of perspective taking are that judgments attributed to another should depend on the information available to the other (Information effect) and on how the other's use of information differs from one's own (Weighting effect). These 2 aspects of perspective taking were studied in a moral judgment task with preschoolers, and second and fifth graders. Subjects were read a series of stories about a little boy transgressing and asked to make judgments from both their own perspective and that of a mother character in the stories. The mother story character had either the same information as the subject or only partial information. Valence of intention and consequence and the amount of mother's knowledge varied factorially. Subjects were clustered using scores derived from the judgements. 3 clusters were found that showed different levels of perspective-taking ability. There was a developmental progression in the 3 levels of perspective taking. Subjects in the Harshness cluster attributed harsher judgments to the mother perspective. Subjects in the Weighting cluster weighted information differently depending on the perspective from which they judged. Subjects in the Information-and-Weighting cluster weighted information differently depending on perspective, and also considered the amount of information available to the mother character in attributing judgments. The findings are compared to current theory on the development of perspective taking. Future research and theory need to consider the influence of both information and weighting differences on performance in perspective-taking tasks.     

Agency, Identity, and Social Justice Education: Preservice Teachers’ Thoughts on Becoming Agents of Change in Urban Elementary Science Classrooms

Using multiple theoretical frameworks, reflective writings and interviews, this study explores preservice elementary teachers’ emerging identities as science teachers and how this identity is connected to notions of critical agency and a stance toward social justice. The study addresses two central questions pertaining to preservice teachers’ conceptions as “agents of change” and how their perceptions as change agents frame their science teacher identities and understanding of teaching science in urban elementary classrooms. Their identity in the moment as elementary preservice teachers—not yet teachers—influences how they view themselves as teachers and how much agency or power they feel they have as agents of change in science classrooms. Findings suggest that science teacher education must play a more immediate, fundamental and emancipatory role in preparing preservice teachers in developing science teacher identities and a stance toward social justice.     

Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers for Urban Elementary Science Classrooms: Challenging Cultural Biases Toward Diverse Students

This study reports the learning of elementary preservice teachers regarding diversity and teaching science in diverse urban elementary classrooms. From participating in a semester-long book club, the preservice teachers reveal their cultural biases, connect and apply their knowledge of diversity, and understand that getting to know their students are important elements for teaching science in diverse classrooms. These 3 things connect in ways that allow the preservice teachers to understand how their cultural biases impede student learning and gain new knowledge of diversity as they change their cultural biases. Implications of this study reveal that preservice teachers need opportunities to reveal, confront, challenge, and change their cultural models and to develop new models for teaching science in urban elementary classrooms.

---

EXPERIENCES WITH CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

Continuous assessment has been employed increasingly as a means of assessment and much discussion has resulted about its merits and demerits. This study examines the objectives of an assessment scheme and finds that continuous assessment can both increase the reliability and validity of an assessment method. Research carried out by the Department of Education at Queen's University is also drawn upon to show that continuous assessment creates a rise in real standards.

The focus is upon the BA (Hons) Business Studies Degree at Newcastle Polytechnic, which introduced continuous assessment in 1980. This has since incurred the criticism of the Board of Examiners as a “soft option”. The research which this criticism stimulated, therefore, examined the course work marks, the examination marks and the final aggregate mark — the findings of which are clearly shown by means of diagrams and tables. The relationships between the various sets of marks and between the marks and the class of degree are also examined.

The study concludes that whilst the examiners’ criticism was probably justified, the overall difference between final aggregate mark and examination mark in terms of degree class was, in fact, small, and at the same time it was evident that real standards had risen.     

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Development of Self-Efficacy and Confidence to Teach Science: A Case Study

This study examines the self-efficacy of one preservice elementary school teacher (Kasey) during and after her participation in Science in Childhood Education—a 16-week, elementary preservice science methods course. The case study of this teacher is situated in the context of the class as a whole. This is accomplished through interviewing the one teacher and examining artifacts and observations of the entire class. The results of these experiences are studied to determine what changes have taken place in the participants’ self-efficacy in science teaching as well as the one preservice teacher in greater detail. Because self efficacy is influential to student learning, the results of this study have significant implications for the design of elementary teacher education programs and the support of elementary teachers in teaching science.     

The effect of normal load force and roughness on the dynamic traction developed at the shoe–surface interface in tennis

During tennis-specific movements, such as accelerating and side stepping, the dynamic traction provided by the shoe–surface combination plays an important role in the injury risk and performance of the player. Acrylic hard court tennis surfaces have been reported to have increased injury occurrence, partly caused by increased traction that developed at the shoe–surface interface. Often mechanical test methods used for the testing and categorisation of playing surfaces do not tend to simulate loads occurring during participation on the surface, and thus are unlikely to predict the human response to the surface. A traction testing device, discussed in this paper, has been used to mechanically measure the dynamic traction force between the shoe and the surface under a range of normal loading conditions that are relevant to real-life play. Acrylic hard court tennis surfaces generally have a rough surface topography, due to their sand and acrylic paint mixed top coating. Surface micro-roughness will influence the friction mechanisms present during viscoelastic contacts, as found in footwear–surface interactions. This paper aims to further understand the influence micro-roughness and normal force has on the dynamic traction that develops at the shoe–surface interface on acrylic hard court tennis surfaces. The micro-roughness and traction of a controlled set of acrylic hard court tennis surfaces have been measured. The relationships between micro-roughness, normal force, and traction force are discussed.     

Critical Chemistry Education in a Private,Suburban High School

Research in Science Education - This critical ethnography documents how a group of 25 students and their teacher/researcher in a suburban, private school setting, the vast majority from the...     

Relative age effects and academic timing in Canadian interuniversity football

Relative age effects (RAEs) explain the (dis)advantages individuals experience as a result of when they are born relative to a pre-determined cut-off date. Within an interuniversity setting, academic timing (AT) may moderate the RAE pattern due to some student-athletes having eligibility years that do not correspond with their birth years. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the RAE and AT on interuniversity football players. A series of chi-square goodness of fit tests (χ²) revealed no RAE when all student-athletes were analyzed together as well as among those who were delayed (i.e. eligibility years that correspond with a younger cohort), and a traditional RAE among those who were on-time (i.e. eligibility years that correspond with their year of birth). Student-athletes ranged between 1 and 12 years delayed, with the majority of these athletes being delayed by one (30.76%) or two years (30.97%). This study suggests that there may be advantages to student-athletes delaying their participation within football, as these delays may help mitigate the overall RAE by equalizing playing opportunities for relatively younger student-athletes. However, delaying eligibility raises concerns about equity, particularly for those progressing to interuniversity football directly out of high school who may have to compete for roster spots against student-athletes who may be up to 12 years delayed.     

The differentiated classroom observation scale

This article presents a new classroom observation scale that was developed to examine the differential learning activities and experiences of gifted children educated in regular classroom settings. The Differentiated Classroom Observation Scale (DCOS) is presented in total, with clarification of the coding practices and strategies. Although the DCOS was developed to examine the impact of differentiated classroom practices for gifted children, it is expected that the scale could be used for observing the educational experiences of any identifiable group of children. Reflections on the benefits offered by the DCOS that are not available with existing measures are provided, and include (a) the ability to contrast the educational experiences of two groups of learners; (b) documentation of a variety of educational factors including pedagogy, student engagement, and level of cognitive activity; and (c) preservation of contextual factors for deeper investigation through a database‐driven record keeping system that maintains disaggregated data from a series of short observational segments.