What is the purpose of this experiment? Or can students learn something from doing experiments?

Historically there have been many claims made about the value of laboratory work in schools, yet research shows that it often achieves little meaningful learning by students. One reason, among many, for this failing is that students often do not know the “purposes” for these tasks. By purposes we mean the intentions the teacher has for the activity when she/he decides to use it with a particular class at a particular time. This we contrast with the “aims” of a laboratory activity, the often quite formalised statements about the intended endpoint of the activity that are too often the “opening lines” of a student laboratory report and are simply the “expected” specific science content knowledge outcomes—not necessarily learnt nor understood. This paper describes a unit of laboratory work which was unusual in that the teacher's purpose was to develop students' understanding about the way scientific facts are established with little expectation that they would understand the science content involved in the experiments. The unit was very successful from both a cognitive and affective perspective. An important feature was the way in which students gradually came to understand the teacher's purpose as they proceeded through the unit. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 655–675, 2000     

Exploring the Development of Pre-Service Science Elementary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This paper explores how a group of pre-service elementary science student teachers came to understand the development of their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) over the course of a semester??s study in a science methods course. At the start of the semester, PCK was introduced to them as an academic construct and as a conceptual tool that they could use to plan for, and assess, the development of their professional knowledge and practice as beginning science teachers. All participants were provided with a tool known as a CoRe (Content Representation) and the manner in which they worked with the CoRe was such that it supported them in planning for and assessing their own learning about teaching elementary science through a focus on the development of their PCK. Through analysis of data derived from the application of a CoRe based methodology (modified and adapted for this study) to the teaching of the science topic of Air, participants?? reasons for, confidence in, and perceived meaningfulness of their learning about science teaching could be examined. In so doing, the nature of participants?? PCK development over time was made explicit. The results illustrate real possibilities for ways of enhancing student teachers?? ongoing professional learning in teacher preparation and offer a window into how the nature of PCK in pre-service education might be better understood and developed.     

Definitional Elasticity in the Measurement of Intergenerational Continuity in Substance Use

Increasingly, three generation studies have investigated intergenerational (IG) continuity and discontinuity in substance use and related problem behaviors. However, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the conceptual definition of continuity or to different types of discontinuity (resilience and escalation) or to measurement sensitivity, which affects not only the magnitudes of observed continuity but also factors that correlate with this linkage. This study uses longitudinal data on 427 parent–child dyads from the Rochester IG Study to study continuity and discontinuity in substance use over ages 14–18. Results suggest that the degree of IG continuity, resilience, and escalation in adolescent substance use, as well as correlates of each, depend heavily on how heterogeneity in the behavior is taken into account.     

澳大利亚教师教育质量保障体系:21世纪初的挑战与变革

21世纪初,澳大利亚各级政府为教师教育的发展提供了法律保障、政策支持和专业标准的指导,建立了较为全面的教师教育质量保障体系.在追求高质量发展的同时,澳大利亚教师教育也面临不同层面的困境,尤其是教师教育的管理和教师评估的策略与方法.本文从体系保障、师资保障、过程保障和结果保障几个方面讨论了澳大利亚教师教育机构、教师教育者在提供教师教育过程中应坚持的基本原则和改革方向.