Identification of the Most Critical Content Knowledge Base for Middle School Science Teachers

Much has been said about what science content students need to learn (e.g., Benchmarks for Science Literacy, National Science Education Standards). Less has been said about what science content teachers need to know to teach the content students are expected to learn. This study analyzed four standards documents and assessment frameworks to identify core middle school physical science teacher content knowledge. Analysis across all four documents identified critical middle school physical science content and the relative weightings of this content. This parsimonious selection of content synthesized from these major sources provides guidelines researchers, assessment developers, and professional development providers can use in determining how to expend limited time and other resources.     

Environmental service learning: outcomes of innovative pedagogy in Baja California Sur,Mexico

This article reports on a longitudinal study of a two‐semester middle school environmental learning course that departs from traditional Mexican expository pedagogies through the incorporation of experiential and service learning approaches. In the short term, course participants acquired a heightened awareness of environmental issues, augmented their environmental perceptions and consciousness, and complemented all this with environmentally responsible behaviours. Two years after completing the experiential course, students retained pro‐environmental attitudes and behaviours and unexpectedly exhibited an expanded role in intergenerational learning. The research adds to the handful of studies in this cross‐disciplinary field through qualitative methodologies that refine our understanding of the outcomes of experiential environmental learning.     

The mind of a plagiarist

The ease with which material may be ‘copied and pasted’ from the Internet into written work is raising concern in educational institutions, and particularly in those disciplines that use online sources and methods in their curriculum. A case of ‘serial plagiarism’ is discussed, in the work of a graduate student in an online distance education program. The complexity of the student’s thinking is emphasized, and the manner in which the case was handled by the teacher and the university. The use of an online plagiarism‐checking technology (Turnitin.com) and the value of such services are discussed. The case illustrates the importance of explaining the precise nature of plagiarism to students, of providing clear warnings about its consequences and of developing a careful institutional approach to plagiarism detection and prevention.     

流媒体技术在高校网络多媒体教学中的应用

本文对基于网络的流媒体技术的传输特性加以概括分析，针对目前高校网络视频教学中的运用进行阐释，并提出了现代信息技术与教学相结合以及流媒体技术在多媒体网络教学模式的应用前景。     

Sharing the same world: boys' relations with girls during their last year of primary school

This paper explores the effect of cross gender relations on the construction of boys' masculine identities. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study of 10 to 11‐year‐old boys set in three UK junior schools. Although masculinity is defined against femininity and boys needed to mark out a set of distinctions from themselves and girls, I found that most boys categorized girls as different (they are not us) rather than oppositional, and the most common reaction was one of detachment and disinterest. Rather than maintaining that there are two separate worlds, I argue that there are two complementary gendered cultures, sharing the one overall school world, which are further nuanced by social class and race/ethnicity. Although there was a tendency of boys to dominate space and girls were often excluded from playground games, many girls refused to be dominated by boys, and some were able to deliberately exercise power over them.     

Influence of shock controllability by dominant rats on subsequent attack and defensive behaviors toward colony intruders

Thirty colonies, each consisting of a female and two male adult albino rats, remained intact for an 8-week period. Naive conspecific intruders were then introduced into each colony for a 10-min test for 5 consecutive days. Videotapes of the tests were scored for aggressive and defensive behaviors. In every colony, aggression was greatest for a single alpha male. The alpha rats were randomly given one of three treatments: wheel-turn escape training, inescapable yoked shock, or restraint without shock. The alpha rats were then returned to their colonies and an intruder test was given 26 h later. Significant decreases in aggressive responses and increases in defensive behaviors occurred in the alpha yoked group but not in the other alpha groups. The nonalpha colony partners of the alpha yoked rats showed the opposite changes following the treatment. A final intruder test 72 h later revealed that the deficits in aggression of the alpha yoked group were still present but that the behaviors of most of the other groups were beginning to return to their respective pretreatment levels. These findings were discussed in terms of the concept of learned helplessness and alternative theoretical explanations.     

From PSAs to reel communities: exploring the sounds and silences of urban youth mobilizing digital media production

ABSTRACT

Amplified by a global political climate of fear, oppression, and increased nationalism, this article examines how U.S. secondary students in a digital media elective course used multimodal composition, and video production in particular, as a nexus of ‘participatory politics.’ By partnering theories of multiliterate expression with youth civic engagement, it offers new understandings into how urban youth use digital media production to leverage school-based social action. Refracted through a mediated discourse analysis lens, and with a particular focus on sound as a modal resource for design, findings suggest that youth used media production and semiotic sense-making to simultaneously enliven community action as well as shield students from personal histories of trauma. By engaging in the process of digital media production, as this article suggests, students cultivated new core practices of civic interaction and local engagement by amplifying injustice.     

Enhancing the contribution of visual methods to inclusive education

This paper examines the use of visual methods in studies of inclusive education. Visual methods have been applied to/with pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in the past but the application has tended to be outside rather than inside schools. We argue that understanding contextual reflexivity is important if visual methods are to be successfully adapted to meet the needs of inclusive research. A case study is used to provide an insight into the strengths, weaknesses and difficulties of mixed method visual research. The final section of the paper explores potential applications, strategies and techniques for including visual methods in inclusivity research.     

Students' mental models of the environment

What are students' mental models of the environment? In what ways, if any, do students' mental models vary by grade level or community setting? These two questions guided the research reported in this article. The Environments Task was administered to students from 25 different teacher‐classrooms. The student responses were first inductively analyzed in order to identify students' mental models of the environment. The second phase of analysis involved the statistical testing of the identified mental models. From this analysis four mental models emerged: Model 1, the environment as a place where animals/plants live—a natural place; Model 2, the environment as a place that supports life; Model 3, the environment as a place impacted or modified by human activity; and Model 4, the environment as a place where animals, plants, and humans live. The dominant mental model was Mental Model 1. Yet, a greater frequency of urban students than suburban and rural students held Mental Model 3. The implications to environmental science education are explored. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 327–348, 2007     

Generality of the failure-to-escape (helplessness) phenomenon in rats

A series of four experiments investigated a number of parameters reported to produce “helplessness” in rats. Consistent differences in escape behavior were not found between inescapably shocked and restrained rats when a FR 1 shuttling response was used. Escape latencies also did not differ between groups when a reduced shock intensity was employed during escape training in FR 2 procedure or when an increased FR 3 response was employed during escape training. Findings are discussed in terms of the robustness of the failure-to-escape phenomenon from which “helplessness” in the rat is inferred.