The Integration of Environmental Education into Two Elementary Preservice Science Methods Courses: A Content-Based and a Method-Based Approach

To examine the notion of environmental education (EE) as context for integrating the elementary curricula, we engaged in a multi-case study analysis (Yin 2009) of two preservice elementary science methods courses that utilized an experiential reflective approach—case one (University A) through a science content focus (i.e., sustainability) and case two (University B) through a method focus (i.e., problem-based learning). We examined preservice teachers’ understandings of EE, their ideas to incorporate EE into their future teaching, and their conceptions of EE as a context for integration. Results indicate that both foci (content and method) were successful in building EE content, helping preservice teachers to envision EE in their future classrooms, and promoting EE as a context for integrating their instruction. Based on these results, we offer recommendations for the incorporation of EE as a context for integration into the elementary science methods course.     

What do we know and where do we go? Formative assessment in developing student teachers’ professional learning of teaching science

In the context of teacher education, it could well be suggested that assessment activities that build on formative interactions between student teachers and teacher educators might offer new windows into better understanding teaching and learning. This paper presents findings from a study into a primary science teacher education initiative that seeks to build the foundations on which 24 primary science student teachers, through the use of formative assessment of their science teaching and learning, can begin developing their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In the project, formative assessment consists of activities used by teacher educators to stimulate interactions, self- and peer-assessment in order to provide insights into how student teachers develop their PCK during a semester. Content Representations (CoRes), were used as a tool to unpack the student teachers’ approach to teaching a science topic and the reasons for that approach. The results indicate that the use of CoRes, together with subsequent self-assessment and formative interactions with teacher educators and peers, do have the potential for PCK development for student teachers. The results further highlight the need for developing reliable and valid tools for capturing and assessing student teachers’ PCK in pre-service teacher education.     

Role of exteroceptive background context in taste-aversion conditioning and extinction

In two experiments, saccharin (CS) and lithium chloride (US) were paired in a context consisting of specific visual, auditory, tactual, and olfactory cues. The saccharin aversion was then extinguished in a context free from conditioning-context cues. Later, saccharin preference tests were given in the presence and absence of these cues. The results indicated that the background cues of the conditioning trial controlled the amount of saccharin drunk on extinction trials, and, furthermore, that extinction of the taste aversion was context specific; i.e., groups given extinction trials in a different (from conditioning) context retained their saccharin aversion in the conditioning context only. The results indicate an important role played by the exteroceptive context in taste-aversion conditioning.     

学龄前双语聋童课堂教学评析

近年来,欧美一些国家积极倡导聋童双语教育,我国也于十年前开始聋童双语教育实验.最近由中国和挪威研究人员组成研究小组,对某省5所聋校进行了学龄前双语班课堂教学评估,重在分析课堂中教师与儿童的互动水平.研究将课堂教学行为分为不同类型,进行定时观察记录,并结合访谈和现场观察等方法共同分析.研究认为,教师在课堂中具有高控制性,儿童与教师、儿童与儿童之问语言交流空间少,聋人教师未能充分发挥作用,不同学校之间存在明显差异.     

The Predictive Value of Non-Referential Beat Gestures: Early Use in Parent–Child Interactions Predicts Narrative Abilities at 5 Years of Age

A longitudinal study with 45 children (Hispanic, 13%; non-Hispanic, 87%) investigated whether the early production of non-referential beat and flip gestures, as opposed to referential iconic gestures, in parent–child naturalistic interactions from 14 to 58 months old predicts narrative abilities at age 5. Results revealed that only non-referential beats significantly (p < .01) predicted later narrative productions. The pragmatic functions of the children’s speech that accompany these gestures were also analyzed in a representative sample of 18 parent-child dyads, revealing that beats were typically associated with biased assertions or questions. These findings show that the early use of beats predicts narrative abilities later in development, and suggest that this relation is likely due to the pragmatic–structuring function that beats reflect in early discourse.     

Different ways in which students handle chance encounters in the explorative setting of a dice game

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which Swedish seventh grade students (12 and 13 years old) handle chance encounters. Four groups of students working in pairs participated in the study. In the group discussions, which were tape-recorded and fully transcribed, the students were encouraged to explore strategies for winning a specifically designed dice game based on the sum of two dice. The dice game included four different set-ups of dice designed to bring to the fore different aspects of probability modelling and to offer the student the opportunity to encounter small differences in the mathematical structure of the sample space and of the probability distribution between the four different set-ups. The study describes strategies that the students use when confronted with these different set-ups, what their activities imply in terms of resources in handling random phenomena and what the dice game offers in terms of opportunities for learning probability. In order to explain such meaning-making processes the students’ activities are viewed from a perspective that takes into consideration how the students’ understanding varies with their interpretations of the situation they are confronted with, i.e., how they contextualize the different set-ups of the dice game. The results show how the students, during the course of the game, reorganize their interpretations of the mathematical content confronting them, and how a variation of guiding principles becomes the object of exploration. Approaches of extremes and a number model are described as a means for the students to identify and assign probabilities for the total of two dice.     

Publication by men and women with same-sex and cross-sex PhD supervision

The rates at which men and women published during and after PhD training in psychology were compared for samples experiencing same-sex and cross-sex supervision. When allowance was made for the research productivity and impact of the supervisor, women supervised by women published at similar rates to women supervised by men. Similarly, men supervised by men did not publish on average more often than men supervised by women. Further, there was no difference in mean publication rate between men and women who had completed their PhD degrees in the same university under supervision of the same advisor. Although the analyses provides no evidence that publication is more frequent following same-sex than cross-sex supervision, the possibility that supervision by an advisor of the same sex advantages graduates in other ways needs to be assessed.     

Engaging Undergraduate Kinesiology Students in Clinically-based Research

Many undergraduate students in kinesiology are interested in clinical careers and seek research opportunities for advanced study and unique learning experiences. This article describes a process of engaging undergraduate students in a multi-disciplinary, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded program project investigating factors that may affect pelvic floor support and symptoms in primiparous women during the first year postpartum. Students complete general and protocol-specific training prior to engagement, have specific tasks that reinforce skill development and require independence, and are invited to participate in additional opportunities with the investigative team. The topic of pelvic floor health is novel to most students and participation in this research expands their knowledge beyond a mainstream kinesiology curriculum. Institutionalizing this type of program could formalize undergraduate student research experiences and facilitate ongoing clinical research efforts with a kinesiology focus.