Parents’ Metacognitive Knowledge: Influences on Parent–Child Interactions in a Science Museum Setting

Despite science learning in settings such as science museums being recognized as important and given increasing attention in science education circles, the investigation of parents’ and their children’s metacognition in such settings is still in its infancy. This is despite an individual’s metacognition being acknowledged as an important influence on their learning within and across contexts. This research investigated parents’ metacognitive procedural and conditional knowledge, a key element of their metacognition, related to (a) what they knew about how they and their children thought and learned, and (b) whether this metacognitive knowledge influenced their interactions with their children during their interaction with a moderately complex simulation in a science museum. Parents reported metacognitive procedural and conditional knowledge regarding their own and their children’s thinking and learning processes. Further, parents were aware that this metacognitive knowledge influenced their interactions with their children, seeing this as appropriate pedagogical action for them within the context of the particular exhibit and its task requirements at the science museum, and for the child involved. These findings have implications for exhibit and activity development within science museum settings.     

Assessing the Benefits of Content Notes Enhancements for Digital Audio Resources

Our library has previously investigated the potential impact the addition of contents notes on circulation. In a subsequent study, we found contents notes were the second metadata element most heavily linked to circulation (title was first). Since there has been a marked decline in the use of print resources at our library and a corresponding increase in digital resources, we wanted to know if the addition of contents notes to records for online streaming audio files would result in a similar increase in usage. After enhancing the records, we tracked usage for a period of three months.     

Edinburgh University,schools and the civil service in the early twentieth century

This article is a case study of the relation between urban schooling and university education, using two main sources. Data on the schools attended by history students at Edinburgh University between 1899 and 1933 illustrate the diversity and social ranking of schools in the city. New higher grade schools had a key role in increasing access to university education for both men and women, especially for prospective teachers; the significance of the Education (Scotland) Act of 1918 for Catholic schools, and the continuing importance of small private schools for girls, are also shown. The second source analyses the school origins of successful Edinburgh candidates in civil service examinations between 1896 and 1944, supplemented for other parts of Scotland by the report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service of 1912. This elite career drew mainly from older schools, and contemporary claims for equality of opportunity in Scotland need to be treated with reserve.     

L'ecole francaise et sa difficile insertion communautaire

Résumé Après avoir distingué différentes conceptions possibles de la liaison entre école et communauté locale (banalisation des équipements scolaires, intégration des équipements éducatifs, culturels et sociaux, ouverture de la pédagogie sur la vie réelle, contrôle et participation des parents et des usagers), l'auteur attribue les difficultés d'insertion et d'adaptation communautaires du système scolaire français à une tradition de centralisation administrative et bureaucratique (qui se manifeste dans la conception des programmes et méthodes d'enseignement aussi bien que dans le recrutement et la gestion des personnels). Parmi les innovations pédagogiques récentes susceptibles d'aller dans le sens d'une meilleure liaison entre école et communauté, on peut retenir surtout certaines expériences d'intégration architecturale et fonctionnelle d'équipements à vocation éducative, culturelle ou sociale conçues dans une perspective de participation et de déségrégation communautaire (cf. par exemple les réalisations d'Yerres, d'Istres et surtout de la Villeneuve de Grenoble). De telles expériences s'avèrent cependant difficilement généralisables dans le contexte français, de même que s'avèrent difficiles à mettre en oeuvre le contrôle des parents d'élèves sur le fonctionnement des établissements ou l'ouverture des contenus de l'enseignement sur les réalités du milieu local.

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The author distinguishes between the different ways in which it is possible for the school to relate with the local community — by making school equipment generally available, by integrating the educational, social and cultural resources, by opening up education to real life, and by participation and control by parents and users. The difficulty for the French school system to penetrate and adapt itself to the communities in which it functions, is attributed to the tradition of administrative and bureaucratic centralisation manifested in the conception of teaching programmes and methods, as well as in the recruitment and management of personnel. Among recent educational innovations that could lead to a better association of the school with the community, one might mention first and foremost certain experiments concerned with the architectural and functional integration of educational, cultural and social facilities, conceived in a perspective of participation and desegregation of the community (e.g., in Yerres, Istres, and specially in Villeneuve, Grenoble). However, in the French context, such experiments are difficult to generalise from. It is equally difficult to effect any kind of control by parents over the functioning of educational institutions, or to open the curriculum to the realities of the local environment.

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Zusammenfassung Zunächst unterscheidet der Verfasser zwischen verschiedenen möglichen Konzeptionen von der Verbindung der Schule mit der örtlichen Gemeinschaft (Zugänglichkeit der Schulausstattung, Integration der pädagogischen, kulturellen und sozialen Einrichtungen, Öffnung der Pädagogik auf die Wirklichkeit, Kontrolle und Teilnahme von Eltern und Benutzern). Die Schwierigkeiten des französischen Schulsystems, sich in die Gemeinde einzufügen und ihr anzupassen, schreibt er dem traditionellen administrativen und bürokratischen Zentralismus zu, der sich sowohl in der Konzeption der Lehrprogramme und -methoden als auch in der Einstellung und Führung der Lehrkräfte kundtut. Zu neueren pädagogischen Innovationen, die zu besserer Verbindung der Schule mit der Gemeinschaft führen könnten, gehören vor allem gewisse Beispiele architektonischer und funktioneller Integration von pädagogischen, kulturellen und socialen Einrichtungen im Hinblick auf Teilnahme und Einschluß der Gemeinschaft (wie z.B. realisiert in Yerres, Istres, und vor allem Villeneuve bei Grenoble). Derartige Neuerungen sind allerdings in Frankreich schwer generalisierbar, und auch Kontrolle der Institutionen durch die Eltern sowie Öffnung der Lehrinhalte auf die Wirklichkeit der örtlichen Gegebenheiten sind nicht leicht in die Tat umzusetzen.