Training priority: Positive suggestions

“Keep the sand low, Mike, so it doesn't accidentally get in someone's eyes. That would hurt. Yes, like that — you and Jonathan are building some very long roads. Would a little water help you pack them smoothly?” This teacher's tone of voice is accepting, and her words show understanding of the lifelong learning process.     

Essential Conditions for Technology-Supported,Student-Centered Learning: An Analysis of Student Experiences With Math Out Loud Using the ISTE Standards for Students

This article explores links between student experiences with technology-rich mathematics instruction and the ISTE Standards for Students. Research methods applied constructivist grounded theory to analyze data from student interviews against the ISTE Standards for Students to identify which elements of the design of this learning environment seemed to support the attainment of both mathematics content objectives and the ISTE Standards for Students. Researchers then identify guiding principles for the effective design of technology-supported, student-centered learning environments based on analysis of the results. (Keywords: ISTE standards, mathematics education, student- created work, technology-rich learning)     

Accomplishing lessons in postcolonial classrooms: comparative perspectives from Botswana and Brunei Darussalam

Drawing on observations and audio‐recordings of classroom language use in two postcolonial societies, the Republic of Botswana in Africa and the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam in south‐east Asia, this study seeks to explore how teachers and pupils face the challenge of accomplishing teaching and learning using a language which is not their own. In both Botswana and Brunei Darussalam, English is the official language of instruction for some subjects from mid‐primary school level. Unlike many comparative studies which concentrate on the macro or national level, the focus of this study is the micro‐level of classroom interaction. The study shows that there are both similarities and differences across the two contexts in the ways teachers and pupils engage with language(s) through a range of monolingual and bilingual strategies. In comparing the discourses of primary‐level classrooms in Botswana and Brunei Darussalam, the study demonstrates the tensions in the language policies and practices in the two postcolonial countries. The pressure of globalisation has resulted in the privileging of imported over indigenous languages and the study shows the pragmatic responses of the classroom participants in the two contexts.     

The Ocular Communicator: A Device to Enable Persons with Severe Physical Disabilities to Communicate Using Eye Movements

This report describes the Ocular Communicator(OC) and its use with a person who is severely physically disabled. The device is designed for persons who have minimal motor function and employs eye movements for the operation of a printer or computer keyboard.     

Structuring Occasions

Within the mathematics education literature, the term constructivism has been subject to a diversity of interpretations, many of which are trivializations of original theoretical work. We suggest that trivialized versions of constructivism continue to be promulgated due, in large part,to misunderstandings of some of the vocabulary adopted by its advocates. This situation has been the source of considerable frustration in our ongoing efforts to communicate the insights and implications of radical and social constructivist theories to preservice and practicing teachers. We discuss some of the specifics of these frustrations along with strategies intended to flag and circumvent them in our work with teachers. The writing is structured around a set of recursively elaborated interpretations of a classroom episode. Developed around varied understandings of the terms structure and construct, these interpretations are intended to show how we have worked with teachers to foster a deep appreciation of how learning might be reframed as dependent on, rather than determined by, teaching.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exploring undergraduates' understanding of photosynthesis using diagnostic question clusters

We present a diagnostic question cluster (DQC) that assesses undergraduates' thinking about photosynthesis. This assessment tool is not designed to identify individual misconceptions. Rather, it is focused on students' abilities to apply basic concepts about photosynthesis by reasoning with a coordinated set of practices based on a few scientific principles: conservation of matter, conservation of energy, and the hierarchical nature of biological systems. Data on students' responses to the cluster items and uses of some of the questions in multiple-choice, multiple-true/false, and essay formats are compared. A cross-over study indicates that the multiple-true/false format shows promise as a machine-gradable format that identifies students who have a mixture of accurate and inaccurate ideas. In addition, interviews with students about their choices on three multiple-choice questions reveal the fragility of students' understanding. Collectively, the data show that many undergraduates lack both a basic understanding of the role of photosynthesis in plant metabolism and the ability to reason with scientific principles when learning new content. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

A retrospective view of a study of middle school science curriculum materials: Implementation,scale‐up,and sustainability in a changing policy environment

This article provides an extended, comprehensive example of how teachers, schools, districts, and external factors (e.g., parental pressure and policy mandates) shape curriculum research in the U.S. It retrospectively examines how three different middle school curriculum units were implemented and scaled‐up in a large, diverse school system. The curriculum materials were cognitively based, hands‐on, guided inquiry units; each focused on a different “big idea” in science. The units met some criteria for instructional strategies rated by the Project 2061 Curriculum Analysis. Using evidence‐based decisions, two of the units were found to be effective and equitable, and went to scale, but one was not effective. However, the course of scale‐up was also affected by a changing policy climate, and proceeded in unpredictable ways, with small scale effects not found at large scale, and experienced teachers less effective than inexperienced teachers. Four years after funding ended, none of the units were sustained within the school district. The interactions between the demands of the units and of the school district's policy environment suggests reasons why this occurred, despite evidence that two of the units were successful with diverse learners. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 305–332, 2012     

Measuring the earnings returns to lifelong learning in the UK

This paper examines the earnings returns to learning that takes place following the conventional ‘school-to-work’ stage of the life-course. We operationalise such ‘lifelong learning’ as the attainment of certified qualifications in adulthood, following the completion of the first period of continuous full-time education. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) for the period 1991–2006, our approach and findings represent an important addition to the existing evidence base. By using annual data, we are able to employ the fixed effects estimator, which eliminates the problem of time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity. Our dynamic specification uses a lag structure to consider how earnings returns evolve in the medium and longer run, whilst also controlling for wage trends which were evident prior to qualification attainment. Our results show a medium-run return for women of 10% on hourly wages. For men, initial suggestions of a similar positive return are eliminated once pre-qualification trends are taken into account. This suggests that adult learning has a causal effect on women's subsequent earnings but, for men, any apparent gain is due to selection.