Impact of Inservice Education in Elementary Science: Participants Revisited a Year Later

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Novice supervisors’ practices and dilemmatic space in supervision of student research projects

Growing interest in student research projects in higher education has led to an emphasis on research supervision. We focus in this study on novice supervisors’ approaches to research supervision as they explore their practices and experience difficulties supervising medicalstudents. Teacher noticing was used as a sensitising concept and relations with teacher dilemmas were explored in the research supervision context. To provide in-depth insights into supervisors’ practices and pedagogical choices, twelve stimulated recall interviews with supervisors were analysed. The supervisors were involved in individual undergraduate or master degree student research projects at a research-intensive university. Analysis revealed four kinds of dilemmas which may influence research supervision practices, namely questions regarding regulation, student needs, the student-supervisor relationship and supervisors’ professional identity. We explain the relationship between novice supervisors’ practices and dilemmas in detail. Implications are given to enhance initiatives for professional development of supervisors.     

Erratum: Correction to Description of Analytic Method

Erratum. Child Development 76, 841-855.Online publication date: 14-Jul-2005.     

Students embracing change towards more powerful learning environments in vocational education

Students’ educational engagement is both an important predictor of study success and a key preventive factor for dropout. Vocational tracks in secondary education show high dropout rates. There is strong evidence that the solution to educational disengagement lies in student‐centred, powerful learning environments (PLEs). This study investigates characteristics of PLEs from the perspective of students in vocational secondary education. Students’ perspectives on a learning environment are crucial for their satisfaction and learning engagement. Therefore, we investigated whether the perceived learning environment meets the requirements of PLEs, and to what extent it meets students’ preferences. Additionally, it was investigated whether students who perceive their learning environment as more powerful, are also more engaged for school. Survey data of 532 students showed that student perceptions of their current learning environment were largely discrepant from the characteristics of PLEs. Students strongly asked for more challenging learning pathways, in combination with adaptive learning support. Students who perceived the characteristics of PLEs as being present, reported higher satisfaction and stronger engagement than students who perceived their education to be a less powerful environment. There is a need to redesign curricula in vocational education in such a way that these more intensely implement characteristics of PLEs.     

Effectiveness of Reading-Strategy Interventions in Whole Classrooms: a Meta-Analysis

Research has demonstrated that in controlled experiments in which small groups are being tutored by researchers, reading-strategy instruction is highly effective in fostering reading comprehension (Palincsar & Brown, Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117–175, 1984). It is unclear, however, whether reading-strategy interventions are equally effective in whole-classroom situations in which the teacher is the sole instructor for the whole class. This meta-analysis focuses on the effects of reading-strategy interventions in whole-classroom settings. Results of studies on the effectiveness of reading-strategy interventions in whole-classroom settings were summarized (N_studies?=?52, K?=?125) to determine the overall effects on reading comprehension and strategic ability. In addition, moderator effects of intervention, study, and student characteristics were explored. The analysis demonstrated a very small effect on reading comprehension (Cohen’s d?=?.186) for standardized tests and a small effect (Cohen’s d?=?.431) on researcher-developed reading comprehension tests. A medium overall effect was found for strategic ability (Cohen’s d?=?.786). Intervention effects tended to be lower for studies that did not control for the hierarchical structure of the data (i.e. multilevel analyses).For interventions in which “setting reading goals” was part of the reading-strategy package, effects tended to be larger. In addition, effects were larger for interventions in which the trainer was the researcher as opposed to teachers and effect sizes tended to be larger for studies conducted in grades 6–8. Implications of these findings for future research and educational practice are discussed.     

The Protagonist as a Learner,and the Author as a Teacher in Jack Lasenby’s Novel, <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Lake</Emphasis>

The young adult novels of multi award-winning New Zealand writer, Jack Lasenby, are strongly influenced by his careers as a primary school teacher and deer-culler, and love of story. In his first novel, The Lake, Lasenby depicts Ruth, the protagonist, as a learner who seeks knowledge in much the same way that he, the author-teacher, crafts his work. Incorporating features of John Dewey’s Progressive Education system into the novel, Lasenby emphasises the interrelatedness of diverse characters, and of society, nature, and myth, the notion of a wholeness comprising integrated parts, and the possibility of a truth gained through experiential learning and the imagination. Alienated, oppressed, and lonely, Ruth has experienced parental neglect and abuse, and escapes from the social world to a recognisable fictional wilderness based on the New Zealand landscape of Lasenby’s deer-culling days. At the same time she sees in society and the landscape images that represent herself and her dysfunctional family, and comes painfully to terms with these. Lasenby’s allusions to Maori and Biblical myth add to the multiple perspectives that Ruth (and the implied reader) must resolve in order to arrive at some truth.     

An interactive learning environment (ILE) to study statistics: Effects of prior knowledge on the use of embedded support devices

The present contribution focuses on an interactive learning environment for the delivery of distance education learning materials. The use of such an interactive learning environment is foreseen in a distance education context in which students explore and study (part) of the learning materials by means of a personal computer. Research with interactive learning environments is transposed to the development of a course delivery environment, called ILCE, that also supports the development of a course model and learning materials. A learning environment as used in the present study allows students to access the course materials in a more flexible way. The printed self-study materials often do not correspond with the specific needs of a student, are only weakly related to his or her prior knowledge, or do not take account of differences in learning style. Although the printed course materials include text-embedded support devices (e.g., examples, exercises, illustrations), it is questioned whether the available devices provide enough support for each individual student. Therefore, it is argued that an interactive learning environment — in which a student is actively engaged in selecting learning materials (basic content and embedded support devices) — may provide a valuable tool in order to meet the individual needs of the student. Prototypes of an interactive learning environment were tested in two experimental settings. It appeared that all students were actively engaged in selecting the required support devices. However, the results showed that students with a high prior knowledge state manifested a higher amount of interactive use of support devices than their peers with a low prior knowledge state. The latter was especially found for support devices that either reinforce the acquisition process or provide a tool to test one’s mastery level.