A cross-national mixed-method study of reality pedagogy

This mixed-methods cross-national study investigated the effectiveness of reality pedagogy (an approach in which teachers become part of students’ activities, practices and rituals) in terms of changes in student perceptions of their learning environment and attitudes towards science. A questionnaire was administered to 142 students in grades 8–10 in the Bronx, New York City and Dresden, Germany. The questionnaire combines learning environment scales from the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and the What Is Happening In this Class? Questionnaire with attitude scales from the Test of Science-Related Attitudes. Student interviews were used to support questionnaire findings. Quantitative data analyses revealed that reality pedagogy had a greater impact on students in the Bronx than in Dresden, with qualitative data clarifying differences in how reality pedagogy was enacted in each geographic area. Overall, our findings add to the body of evidence concerning the effectiveness of reality pedagogy as an approach to teaching and learning science across a variety of contexts.     

Differential Effectiveness of Computer-assisted Instruction for Boys and Girls

A sample of 671 secondary school students in 24 classes of nominally slow learners was involved in investigating not only the relative efficacy of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and traditional expository teaching, but particularly the differential effectiveness of the two teaching methods for boys and girls. Both achievement and attitude outcomes were investigated. The difference in mean scores between CAI and traditional classes overall was 3.5 standard deviations for achievement and 1.4 standard deviations for attitude. However, although there was no overall effect of gender on either outcome, a significant treatment-gender interaction occurred for the achievement outcome (but not for the attitude outcome). Boys achieved better than girls in the CAI groups, but boys and girls achieved similarly in the control group.     

Relationship between perceived levels of classroom individualization and science-related attitudes

Relationships between perceived levels of classroom individualization and science-related attitudes were explored for a sample of 712 junior high school science students. Five dimensions of perceived individualization (personalization, participation, independence, investigation, and differentiation) were measured with the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ), while seven distinct attitudes were measured with the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the set of individualization variables accounted for a significant increment in end-of-year attitude scores, beyond that attributable to corresponding beginning-of-year attitude scores, for four of the seven attitudes considered. Significant associations between an individual individualization variable and an attitudinal dimension were positive in all cases. The study also provided support for the reliability and validity of the ICEQ and TOSRA and for their general usefulness in science education research.     

High-Impact Educational Practices: An Exploration of the Role of Information Literacy

There is an expectation that college students graduate with competency in information literacy. Ideally, institutions of higher education integrate these competencies throughout their curricula in a progressive manner. High-impact educational practices contribute to student success. The purpose of this article is to examine recent literature about five of the high-impact educational practices (capstone experiences, learning communities, service learning and community-based learning, undergraduate research, and writing-intensive courses) to understand the extent to which they include the integration of information literacy competencies. The article includes recommendations for practice and research in the areas of assessment, pedagogy, and program planning.     

Classroom,Home and Peer Environment Influences on Student Outcomes in Science and Mathematics: An analysis of systemic reform data

Using secondary analysis of a large database from a Statewide Systemic Initiative, we examined the effects of several types of environments on student outcomes. Over 3 years, nearly 7,000 students in 392 classes in 200 different schools responded to a questionnaire that assesses class, home, and peer environments as well as student attitudes. Students also completed an achievement measure that, developed by scientists, teachers, and science educators, was not aligned with any particular curriculum. Students were enrolled in middle‐school science and mathematics classes in schools that had participated in the Statewide Systemic Initiative. Rasch analyses allowed us to compare across student cohorts and across schools. Findings confirmed the importance of extending research on classroom learning environments to include the learning environments of the home and the peer group. Although all three environments accounted for statistically significant amounts of unique variance in student attitudes, only the class environment (defined in terms of the frequency of use of standards‐based teaching practices) accounted for statistically significant amounts of unique variance in student achievement scores. The findings are supported by other studies of systemic reform in the United States.     

Interactive group activity: a socially mediated tool for opening an interpretive space in classroom research

An ongoing challenge in classroom research is to understand children’s perspectives on their learning. While learning is highly individual, it is also significantly social and this raises methodological challenges. An Interactive Group Activity (IGA) is one of several data collection strategies used during the action research phase of the Connecting Curriculum, Connecting Learning project (2010–2011) focusing on arts-based curriculum integration. This article concentrates on the IGA tool as a means of uncovering children’s meaning making following an extended period of learning. Of particular note is the use of an arts pedagogical device to introduce the IGA to children, a device that frames the purpose of the task. In effect, the IGA acts as a group assessment device underlining the socially mediated nature of children’s learning. This article describes how the IGA tool evolved, gives its form and structure, argues for its affordances and suggests possibilities for its wider use.     

Peabody bimonthly booknotes

Behind the Iron Curtain. Joseph S. Roucek and Kenneth V. Lottich. (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, 1964. Pp. 631. $8.95.)

Year‐Round Education. Clarence A. Schoenfield and Neil Schmitz. (Madison, Wisconsin: Dembar Educational Research Services, 1964. Pp. 111. $3.00, paper.)

The University of Kentucky: The Maturing Years. Charles Gano Talbert. (Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1965. Pp. 208. $5.00.)

Montessori for Parents. Dorothy Canfield Fisher. (Cambridge, Mass.: Robert Bentley, Inc., 1965. Pp. 240. $5.95.)

The Montessori Manual for Teachers and Parents. Dorothy Canfield Fisher. (Cambridge, Mass.: Robert Bentley, Inc., 1965. Pp. 126. $5.00.)

The Montessori Elementary Material. Maria Montessori. (Cambridge, Mass.: Robert Bentley, Inc., 1964. Pp. 464. $8.50.)

The Montessori Method. Maria Montessori. (Cambridge, Mass.: Robert Bentley, Inc., 1964. Pp. 377. $6.50.)

Spontaneous Activity in Education. Maria Montessori. (Cambridge, Mass.: Robert Bentley, Inc., 1964. Pp. 355. $6.50.)

The Concepts of Over‐and‐Underachievement. Robert L. Thorndike. (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1963. Pp. 79. $3.25.)

Handbook of Research on Teaching. N. S. Gage, editor. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963. Pp. 1218. $15.00.)     

A Cross-cultural Study of Classroom Learning Environments in Australia and Taiwan

This research is distinctive in that it not only provides an example of one of the few cross-cultural studies in science education, but also it used multiple research methods from different paradigms in exploring classroom learning environments in Taiwan and Australia. This article describes the validation and use of an English and Mandarin version of the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire in junior high school science classes in Australia and Taiwan. When the WIHIC was administered to 1,081 students in 50 classes in Australia and to 1,879 students in 50 classes in Taiwan, data analysis supported the reliability and factorial validity of the questionnaire, and revealed differences between Taiwanese and Australian classrooms. Although the study commenced from a more positivistic framework, favouring a more objectivist view, as the study progressed, it employed an interpretative framework and drew on elements of constructivist and critical theory paradigms. This article outlines the researchers' use of multiple research methods including classroom observations, in-depth interviews and narratives. The themes which emerged from the data gathered using these methods helped to make sense of classroom environments that were created in each country.