Facilitating place-based environmental education through bird studies: an action research investigation

This study involved a workshop designed to support biology teachers in conducting birdwatching activities with their students and to promote place-based environmental education in Turkey. The instruments for collecting data were a workshop questionnaire and interviews. The findings revealed that initial response to the workshop was positive; participating teachers reported that the resources and strategies motivated them to conduct bird studies with students. They identified barriers and noted that the place-based education approach might help overcome many of these barriers. After the workshop, it became clear that participants’ initial intentions to integrate birdwatching into their lessons were challenged by lack of confidence and time. To gain deeper insights into the outcomes of the project, the project coordinator used action research strategies to reflect on her practice and reveal implications for her continued efforts to promote bird and environmental education. She kept a journal, used reiterative reflection, and content analysis to analyse workshop evaluations and interviews. The coordinator recognized potentials and challenges for facilitating birdwatching and environmental education as part of her teaching career. This study shares some of her efforts to provide ongoing support and emphasizes that facilitation of environmental education needs time, commitment, and passion.     

Statistical Engineering for Quality and Productivity Improvements

RESUME

The quality concept is today strongly connected with customer satisfaction. One important reason for the quality and productivity success in the Japanese industry is a consequent and systematic use of statistical methods during different stages of the production process. The quality challenge of the European industry therefore implies claims both on the industry to use more statistical methods and on the teaching of statistics at engineering schools at different levels. In this paper we discuss the modern quality development and the role of statistical methods in this development. We also emphasize its strong implications for the teaching of statistics at engineering schools.

Le concept ‘qualite’ est de nos jours en relation étroite avec la satisfaction du client. Une des raisons importantes du succès, en fait de qualité el de productivité, de I'industrie japonaise est I'utilisation conséquente et systématique des méthodes statistiques dans les différentes étapes du processus de production. Le defi ‘qualité’ pour I'industrie europeenne exige alors, d'une part I'intensification de I'utilisation de méthodes statistiques dans I'industrie, et d'autre part I'enseignement de la statistique dans les ecoles d'ingenieurs à differents niveaux. Dans cet article, nous discutons le developpement moderne du concept ‘qualité’ et le rdle des methodes statistiques dans ce développement. Aussi nous insistons sur set grandes implications dans I'enseignement des statistiques dans les écoles d'ingénieurs.     

Translating norms from Europe to Turkey: Turkey in the Bologna Process

This article focuses on the structural changes Turkish higher education is going through as a result of Turkey’s integration into the European educational space. The focus of the article is the process of policy transfer. For this purpose, the article outlines the changes in Turkish higher education comprehensively to explain the dynamics of the policy transfer. Creation of a national qualifications system and establishment of a quality assurance system are given as examples of policy transfer. The article concludes that while the system is becoming more student-centred, change in higher education is happening in a very top-down fashion, where participation of relevant stakeholders is not ensured.     

Navigating the divide between scientific practice and science studies to support undergraduate teaching of epistemic knowledge

There is an urgent need to strengthen undergraduate science students’ epistemic knowledge, which requires having the scientists qua teachers on board. The divide between scientists’ perceptions of science and the perceptions held by those who study science is in this context problematic. Even so, this remains a sorely understudied area. The aim of the study was to identify pragmatic ways that hold the potential to facilitate integration of scholarly studies of scientific knowledge production with experientially based knowledge held by scientists to support the teaching of epistemic knowledge content to undergraduate science students. Earlier studies suggest that trust building is a central component. Our exploratory case study focuses on instructor perceptions and is based on informal interviews, participatory observation and surveys with instructors in a first-year undergraduate science course under revision. We identified the following central components as central to successful navigation of the divide between the scientific practice and science studies: Explicit formulation of learning objectives tied to epistemic knowledge acquisition; Conscious attention to vocabulary that triggers scientists’ aversion to science studies; Careful selection of historic and contemporary cases; and Systematic scaffolding of course activities. The conclusion regarding a common vocabulary stands out: by ridding our instructions from the vocabulary that caused concern among science instructors we succeeded in engaging them in conversations with students about the knowledge-producing process and challenge the view of science as characterised by facts and truths, rather than a form of scholarly inquiry that aims to produce knowledge about the natural world.     

Women,capitalism and education: On the pedagogical implications of postfeminism

Abstract

We examine the emergence of the ‘postfeminist’ sensibility from feminist theory and praxis, and its relation and relevance to education. Analytical frameworks such as postfeminism and intersectionality have given equal weight to recognition-based struggles, such as those based on sexual, racial, class-based, gender-related identities. We follow Nancy Fraser’s argument that these identity-based movements have been co-opted by neoliberal politicians and bureaucratic policy-makers, and become a divide and rule strategy, neglecting the subjugating power of capital. Beginning with third-wave feminism’s emphasis on individual identity, women’s struggles have been become a part of the greater parisitic neoliberal project. We consider the implications of this docile and domesticated feminism for the education of women.     

Teachers’ leadership: a maker or a breaker of students’ educational motivation

Teachers’ leadership plays a critical and central role in students’ educational motivations. This indicates that, in the school context, a teacher’s leadership can have both positive and negative impacts on students’ educational motivation and performance. This article explores these assumptions, building on the path-goal theory, more specifically the effects of teachers’ leadership from students’ perspectives. Using a qualitative research design, this study collected data comprising 35 interviews with children and young people in both primary and upper-secondary school. The results show that the degree of teachers’ developmental leadership greatly affects students’ educational motivation and school performance. Two contrasting teachers’ profiles were found: teachers with a high degree of developmental leadership and teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership. Our findings suggest that teachers with the profile of a high degree of developmental leadership create an environment that fosters educational motivation positively among students, facilitating students’ achievement of high performance levels and a sense of well-being about their studies. In contrast, we show that teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership create an environment that is nonconductive for educational motivation, performance or the welfare of schoolwork.     

Somali Swedes’ Reasons for Choosing a Muslim-Profiled School—Recognition and Educational Ambitions as Important Influencing Factors

This article analyzes choice strategies among a group of Somali Swedes at a Muslim-profiled compulsory school. In the Swedish debate these schools are alleged to be divisive, with values incompatible with the goals of Swedish schools. The study explores whether there are other reasons behind school choice than the school’s faith profile, concluding that for the group in question, it is also important to find a school in accordance with high educational ambitions and respect for rather than discrimination toward their faith, culture, and skin color.     

School climate and exposure to bullying: a multilevel study

This study investigates associations between aspects of school climate, measured by students’ assessments aggregated to the class level, and exposure to bullying, measured at the individual level. The data were derived from the Stockholm School Survey of 2006–2010 with information from 16,418 ninth-grade students (aged 15–16 years) distributed over 871 classes and 259 schools. Three-level binary logistic regression was applied. Two of the studied school climate aspects in particular were linked with the occurrence of bullying: In classes where a high proportion of students claimed to be aware of the school rules and in classes where a high proportion of students stated that adults intervene against bullying, fewer students reported having been bullied. The findings imply that striving toward a school climate characterized by transparent rules and clear disapproval of harassments may help to reduce bullying.     

Student-centred learning (SCL): roles changed?

This paper addresses the espoused and enacted practices of high school teachers with regard to student-centred learning (SCL). Explanatory mixed-method design, where quantitative strand is followed by qualitative one, is employed. While the quantitative strand aims to explore teachers’ perceptions regarding the extent student-centred teacher and student roles are performed, qualitative strand is used to explore how well the enacted roles represent the espoused ones and to explain the discrepancies, if any, between them. The findings indicate discrepancies between espoused and enacted practices of teachers. Qualitative data reveal that teachers’ beliefs about teacher and student roles are still very much teacher centred. Reasons are varied including system-wide barriers hindering the adoption of SCL and teacher training offered. The findings draw attention to an urgent need for alternative teacher training programmes that would focus on changing teachers’ traditional beliefs enabling them to put theory into practice and adopt student-centred roles.