Twenty questions about student errors

Errors in science learning (errors in expression of organized, purposeful thought within the domain of science) provide a window through which glimpses of mental functioning can be obtained. Errors are valuable and normal occurrences in the process of learning science. A student can use his/her errors to develop a deeper understanding of a concept as long as the error can be recognized and appropriate, informative feedback can be obtained. A safe, non-threatening, and nonpunitive environment which encourages dialogue helps students to express their conceptions and to risk making errors. Pedagogical methods that systematically address common student errors produce significant gains in student learning. Just as the nature-nurture interaction is integral to the development of living things, so the individual-environment interaction is basic to thought processes. At a minimum, four systems interact: (1) the individual problem solver (who has a worldview, relatively stable cognitive characteristics, relatively malleable mental states and conditions, and aims or intentions), (2) task to be performed (including relative importance and nature of the task), (3) knowledge domain in which task is contained, and (4) the environment (including orienting conditions and the social and physical context). Several basic assumptions underlie research on errors and alternative conceptions. Among these are: Knowledge and thought involve active, constructive processes; there are many ways to acquire, organize, store, retrieve, and think about a given concept or event; and understanding is achieved by successive approximations. Application of these ideas will require a fundamental change in how science is taught.     

Training effects on Belgian preschool and primary school teachers’ attitudes towards the best practices for gifted children

Lack of knowledge of effective educational interventions for gifted children is a pressing problem in Belgian schools. Most preschool and primary school teachers enter the profession without any training in the best practices for gifted children. This results in many misconceptions about giftedness and gifted education and a diversity of well-intentioned but ineffective interventions in the classroom. In response to the request for help from many schools, the Belgian expertise center “Exentra” designed a professional training program for in-service teachers with the aim to increase teachers’ understanding of the characteristics and needs of gifted pupils, and help teachers develop the necessary confidence and skills to effectively teach the gifted in regular, mixed-ability classes. This study shows that the Exentra training is effective in changing teachers’ beliefs about gifted education and enhancing teachers’ knowledge, abilities, and self-esteem to effectively modify the curriculum for the more capable pupils in the classroom.     

What's the point? Children's understanding of didactic stories

When do children reliably understand that a simple narrative text such as a fable is conveying a point or moral lesson? What role does culture play in influencing understanding? These questions were explored in a cross-sectional sample of 192 children, aged 7, 9 and 11 years drawn from the two largest groups in Singapore, Chinese and Malays. During interviews the child participants were read traditional Aesop's, Chinese and Malay fables and manipulated fables and fable-like stories, and asked to identify and generate the points or morals. The sample and design of the study allowed for comparisons with similar American research. The evidence suggests that, as predicted, cultural background exerts a positive influence on this ability. A number of ethnic differences in response between the Chinese and Malays emerged and possible reasons for these are discussed.     

A behavior systems view of responding to probe stimuli during an interfood clock

Two experiments used a behavior systems approach to relate the form of responses during an interfood clock to the temporal distance of the individual clock stimuli to food. Stimuli proximate to food should better control a focal search mode and related responses, whereas stimuli temporally distant from food should better control a general search mode and related responses. Experiment 1 conditioned two groups of rats with a sequence of four equal-length 12-sec clock stimuli that terminated with food and then tested for the conditioning of a general search mode by presenting an unconditioned moving probe stimulus (either a rolling ball bearing or a rotating mechanical door) during each of the clock stimuli. Consistent with a behavior systems view, contact with the ball bearing was markedly greater during a clock stimulus distant from food. The absence of similar differential contact of the door across the clock stimuli showed that the effect was specific to the ball bearing rather than a general response to stimulus dimensions of movement and sound. Experiment 2 showed that the general search mode was controlled by the clock stimulus rather than the passage of time.     

Educational Testing Abroad and Lessons for the United States

What are key features of schooling and testing in some major industrialized countries? What lessons can we learn u from other countries? How important is the issue of confidence in the teachers who will be called on to judge student performance?     

Effects of a verbal and visual feedback system on running technique,perceived exertion and running economy in female novice runners

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a verbal and visual feedback system on running technique, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and running economy. Twenty‐two female novice runners were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 11) and control (n = 11) groups. The experimental subjects received verbal and visual feedback concerning their running technique prior to and during each training run. Training involved 15 20‐min treadmill running sessions over a 5‐week period. The control group adhered to the same training routine but did not receive feedback concerning their running technique. High‐speed (100 Hz) photography was used to collect biomechanical data. A submaximal oxygen consumption test and Borg's RPE scale were used to collect data concerning running economy and perceived exertion, respectively. Statistical analysis using ANCOVA revealed that the proposed feedback system had a significant (P < 0.01) effect on the experimental group's running technique by affecting the following desired changes relative to the control group: greater relative stride lengths, shorter support time, greater ankle dorsiflexion during support and greater knee flexion during support and non‐support. There were no significant differences between the groups in submaximal VO₂ or RPE. The results of this study suggest that verbal and visual feedback are effective means of eliciting modifications in running style in female novice runners. The link between modifications in running style and improvements in running economy and perceived exertion remains unclear.     

Generating connections and learning with SemNet,a tool for constructing knowledge networks

In this paper we examine the impact of using a Macintosh-based knowledge organization toll SemNet, with prospective elementary and middle school teachers enrolled in an upper division biology course. The course models for students the ways in which they will be able to teach hands-on, minds-on science in K-8 classrooms and provides them with an in-depth understanding of a relatively small number of biology topics. This study examines changes in learning habits, metacognitive processes, retention, retrieval, and learring among students enrolled in this course. Students using SemNet tend to exhibit a significant increase in deep processing as measured by self-report. Also on the basis of self-report, SemNet students appear to acquire some cognitive skills that transfer to other courses, such as identifying main ideas and tying ideas together. SemNet students retained and retrieved nearly twice as much information about a topic, the digestive system, as a reference group. Although neither the SemNet nor the reference group exhibited transfer skills as we meansured them, there is evidence that SemNet student changed their thinking strategies.     

Questioning power structures and competitiveness in pedagogy insights from North American Indian and Philippine pedagogies

This paper begins with case studies of innovative approaches to the education of Aboriginal Canadian Peoples and Philippine Aboriginal Peoples. These illustrate that, in such situations, where more traditional approaches have little success, the power to design, implement and evaluate educational programs can beneficially be shared between teacher and learner. Learners co-operate with each other in deciding what they need to learn. They examine their own needs and issues and assess their learning in terms of their cultural, economic and community value systems. Leadership is shared with the teacher/facilitators and word, image, number, gesture and sound are all employed to acquire knowledge and to demonstrate what that knowledge means to the group. In this particular enterprise, popular theatre has a major role to play in democratizing the provision of education and in encouraging educational development in circumstances where other approaches have been ineffectual. In the latter part of the paper, a model of education implied by the case studies is constructed and examined to provide alternatives to the traditional views of epistemology, of ethics and of pedagogy based on a notion of democracy as a daily struggle.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel beginnt mit Fallstudien über innovative Ansätze zur Bildung kanadischer und philippinischer Einheimischer. Diese Studien belegen, daß dort, wo traditionellere Ansätze wenig Erfolg zeigen, die Aufgaben der Planung, Implementierung und Evaluierung von Bildungsprogrammen zu gegenseitigem Nutzen unter Lehrern und Schülern aufgeteilt werden kann. Die Lernenden arbeiten bei der Entscheidung über ihren Lernbedarf zusammen. Sie bewerten ihre eigenen Bedürfnisse und Ergebnisse, entscheiden über die für sie wichtigen Themenbereiche und schätzen ihre Lernergebnisse in Form eigener kultureller, wirtschaftlicher und gemeinschaftlicher Wertsysteme ein. Schüler, Lehrer und Organisatoren teilen sich die Entscheidung über die Unterrichtsgestaltung; Worte, Bilder, Zahlen, Gesten und Töne werden dazu genutzt, Wissen zu erwerben und die Bedeutung dieser Kenntnisse für die Gruppe aufzuzeigen. Bei diesem speziellen Unternehmen spielt das Volkstheater eine wesentliche Rolle bei der Demokratisierung des Bildungsangebots und für den Anreiz zur Weiterentwicklung der Bildung in Bereichen, in denen andere Ansätze erfolglos blieben. Im Schlußteil wird ein durch die Fallstudien angeregtes Bildungsmodell entworfen und untersucht, um aufgrund täglichen Bemühens um eine Demokratie Alternativen zu traditionellen Ansichten über Epistemologie, Ethik und Pädagogik zu bieten.

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Résumé Le présent article commence par des études de cas d'approches novatrices de l'enseignement destiné aux peuples indigènes du Canada et des Philippines. Elles montrent que dans les situations où les approches plus traditionnelles ont moins de succès, le pouvoir de conception, d'exécution et d'évaluation des programmes d'éducation peut être avantageusement partagé entre enseignant et apprenant. Les apprenants coopèrent les uns avec les autres pour définir ce qu'ils doivent apprendre. Ils examinent leurs propres besoins et problèmes et évaluent leur apprentissage en fonction de leurs systèmes de valeurs culturelles, économiques et communautaires. La direction est assurée à la fois par les apprenants l'enseignant et les facilitateurs, et le mot, l'image, le nombre, le geste et le son sont tous mis à contribution pour acquérir les connaissances et pour expliquer ce qu'elles signifient pour le groupe en question. Dans cette entreprise particulière, le théâtre populaire a un rôle majeur à jouer dans la démocratisation de l'offre d'éducation et dans la promotion du développement de l'éducation là où d'autres approches n'ont pas réussi. Dans la dernière partie de l'article, on construit et on examine un modèle d'éducation à partir des études de cas pour offrir des solutions de rechange aux vues traditionnelles de l'épistémologie, de l'éthique et de la pédagogie fondées sur une notion de la démocratie vue en tant que lutte quotidienne.