Roles, caring and learning to teach science

Classroom narratives and stories are rich and powerful in offering deep insights into classrooms and the reality of teaching—a reality critically re-examined in this forum. Discussing Maria’s narratives led to reflections about what it takes to support teachers to become agents of more equitable science practices. Factors such as time and identity-work are key dimensions of the authors’ struggle, but they also address understanding students in profound ways. The ways in which contradictions at different levels in the educational system can become sources of growth, reflection and action are discussed; yet no simple answers follow. Teaching and becoming a teacher are best understood as life-long processes of reflection and action and as political acts that entail challenging many boundaries. They also involve putting oneself into vulnerable roles and positions. This dialogue opens up many questions about how we can collaborate, guide and support both novices and experienced professionals in education as researchers, science staff developers, and teacher educators. It seeks to support the on-going quest to make science education authentic and equitable.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales,Fifth Edition,with a high‐achieving sample

The Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (SB5), is a recently published, multidimensional measure of intelligence based on Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) theory. The author of the test provides results from confirmatory factor analyses in the technical manual supporting the five‐factor structure of the instrument. Other authors have examined this factor structure through EFA using the standardization sample, and have not found evidence of a five‐factor model. The purpose of the current study was to examine the internal construct validity of the SB5 using an independent sample of high‐functioning students. Participants included 201 high‐functioning, third‐grade students ranging in age from 8 years, 4 months to 10 years, 11 months. Five models of the SB5 were analyzed using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS). Our findings indicated that a hierarchical, four‐factor, post‐hoc model provided the best fit to the data. Generally, implications for school psychologists include a better understanding of the factor structure of the SB5, especially as it relates to high‐achieving children. Directions for future research are also discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Use of Cultural Styles or Repertoires of Experience to Guide Instruction: What Difference Does it Make?

Educators are seeking to meet student needs in increasingly diverse university classrooms. Two contrasting ways of responding to cultural difference are planning instruction on the basis of cultural styles or repertoires of culturally-based experiences (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003). Use of learning styles to address individual differences in learning is relatively commonplace (Young, 2008). More controversial is the use of cultural styles that assume commonalities in approaches to learning based on cultural background. There are benefits and problems with using individual or cultural learning styles. Gutiérrez and Rogoff (2003) proposed that we abandon the use of the styles construct in favour of working with students’ repertoires of culturally-based experiences. This cultural historical approach has different views of the learner and his or her relationship to cultural communities, the learning process, and the appropriate instructional practices to address diversity. After contrasting the styles and cultural historical approaches, a compromise position is presented along with recommendations for further research and the optimal use of both the styles and cultural-historical approaches.     

Exploring identities to deepen understanding of urban high school students' sexual health decision‐making

Sexual health is a controversial science topic that has received little attention in the field of science education, despite its direct relevance to students' lives and communities. Moreover, research from other fields indicates that a great deal remains to be learned about how to make school learning about sexual health influence the real‐life choices of students. In order to provide a more nuanced understanding of young people's decision‐making, this study examines students' talk about sexual health decision‐making through the lens of identities. Qualitative, ethnographic research methods with twenty 12th grade students attending a New York City public school are used to illustrate how students take on multiple identities in relation to sexual health decision‐making. Further, the study illustrates how these identities are formed by various aspects of students' lives, such as school, family, relationships, and religion, and by societal discourses on topics such as gender, individual responsibility, and morality. The study argues that looking at sexual health decision‐making—and at decision‐making about other controversial science topics—as tied to students' identities provides a useful way for teachers and researchers to grasp the complexity of these decisions, as a step toward creating curriculum that influences them. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:742–762, 2010