Less experienced mathematics teachers report what is wrong with their professional support system

Teachers with seven years of teaching experience or less (n = 10) participating in a large‐scale mathematics professional development program in the United States were interviewed. The goal of this qualitative study was to better understand less experienced teachers' reactions to professional development and professional support in the teaching profession. The interview data ­indicate that these less experienced mathematics teachers are not satisfied with their mentors orcollaboration in their department and would welcome opportunities for classroom observations. In addition, these teachers were disappointed and surprised at their more experienced peers' lack of mathematics content knowledge. The results of this study have direct implications for the structure and philosophy for professional development to better serve incoming and less experienced teachers.     

Signs and meanings in students' emergent algebraic thinking: A semiotic analysis

The purpose of this article, which is part of a longitudinal classroom research about students' algebraic symbolizations, is twofold: (1) to investigate the way students use signs and endow them with meaning in their very first encounter with the algebraic generalization of patterns and(2) to provide accounts about the students' emergent algebraic thinking. The research draws from Vygotsky's historical-cultural school of psychology, on the one hand, and from Bakhtin and Voloshinov's theory of discourse on the other, and is grounded in a semiotic-cultural theoretical framework in which algebraic thinking is considered as a sign-mediated cognitive praxis. Within this theoretical framework, the students' algebraic activity is investigated in the interaction of the individual's subjectivity and the social means of semiotic objectification. An ethnographic qualitative methodology, supported by historic, epistemological research, ensured the design and interpretation of a set of teaching activities. The paper focuses on the discussion held by a small group of students of which an interpretative, situated discourse analysis is provided. The results shed some light on the students' production of (oral and written) signs and their meanings as they engage in the construction of expressions of mathematical generality and on the social nature of their emergent algebraic thinking. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Provision for Children with Speech and Language Difficulties in Tanzania

Knowledge about paediatric speech and language difficulties, training for and contact with children with such problems and views on service developments were explored using a written questionnaire, completed by 84 Tanzanian health and education professionals. Additionally, two sets of interviews were carried out, one with a subset of questionnaire respondents and another with a group of 14 health/education planners and administrators. Results showed that whilst only 41 % of respondents had received training about speech and language difficulties, 68% considered themselves to be responsible for assisting children with such problems. Levels of knowledge were significantly higher in the special education group, but were not significantly related to training, exposure to speech and language therapists, or professional responsibility. However, knowledge levels were significantly related to daily contact with children with speech and language difficulties. No evidence of research or planning for children with such difficulties was discovered. Views on service provision favoured educational over health‐based provision. Qualitative information on attitudes and beliefs about speech and language difficulties did not contradict previous data on disabilities. The implications for Tanzania and other similar countries are discussed. Improvements to the questionnaire are discussed. More data are needed in order to facilitate appropriate service development.     

Monitoring Standards in Mathematics in Year 2: an 8 year cross‐sectional study

The National Curriculum was introduced into British primary schools in 1989 to raise standards of attainment, especially in the basic skills of English and mathematics. Other steps taken to raise standards included putting basic skills at the heart of the school curriculum and teacher training and publishing school performance tables to focus attention on standards. What has been the effect of these measures on children's mathematical attainments? This paper analyses the mathematics standards of eight cohorts of Year 2 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) (n = 1502) who had all done Mathematics 7 from 1989–1996. Examination of the means of the standardised mathematics scores for each cohort reveals evidence of stable standards in attainment over the 8 years. There are fewer over‐achievers than one would expect and this indicates that less children in this sample are doing really well than was the case when the test was standardised. Discussion centres on the cost effectiveness and utility of the National Curriculum, assessment procedures and the publishing of school performance tables in raising mathematical standards at Key Stage 1. The need for an effective system for monitoring educational standards throughout the UK is raised.     

Assessing an Online Student Orientation: Impacts on Retention,Satisfaction, and Student Learning

To help prepare students for the rigors of an online master’s degree in technical and professional communication, I created a course-embedded online student orientation (OSO) structured by the community of inquiry theory of online learning. The study researched the effect of the OSO on student satisfaction, student perceptions of online learning, and students’ program retention. The OSO was effective in helping students to reflect on their learning and demonstrated students’ interest in peer collaboration.     

Perceived efficacy and attitudes towards genetic science and science governance

Arguments for public involvement in science and technology are often based on ideas of developing a more capable public and the assumed effects this may have for science. However, such a relationship is yet to be sufficiently explored and recent work indicates that a more involved public may have counterintuitive effects. Using nationally representative survey data for the U.K. and Northern Ireland, the effects of the public's own beliefs about involvement are explored. Developing the concept of "belief in public efficacy," findings suggest those who believe that the public might be able to affect the course of decision making have less approving attitudes towards future applications of genetic science; however, an individual's political efficacy does not significantly influence these attitudes. Furthermore, political efficacy and belief in public efficacy have some distinct and opposing relationships with the principles of governance people prefer. Overall, findings provide support for suggestions that it is simplistic to consider increasing public involvement as a way of increasing the approval of risky new technologies.     

Objects and Objectivity: The Evolution Controversy at the American Museum of Natural History, 1915–1928

For the purpose of this essay, I examine how evolutionary theory was treated and responded to in the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of the Age of Man during the early 1900s. Specifically, I examine how the curatorial work of the museum’s president, Henry Fairfield Osborn, relied on the purported use of objectivity as a means by which to communicate the validity of evolutionary theory through the objects in his exhibit. But objectivity represented a resource for anti-evolution critics as well. To show this, I likewise examine how the Baptist pastor, John Roach Straton, responded to Osborn’s objects and purported use of objectivity in the Hall of the Age of Man and how he himself attempted to establish a different type of objectivity through pluralistic approaches to theories of origins. Established as a common value, objectivity ceased to be a simple discriminator between scientists and non-scientists within the debate over evolution. While issues over the teaching of evolutionary theory during this period are already well known, I show here that the controversy over evolutionary theory was not only an issue within public schools during the early 1900s, but also within the museum as an institute of public education and how the rhetorical role of objects and space were critical components of argument for both evolutionists and creationists.