Improving Conceptual Understanding and Representation Skills Through Excel-Based Modeling

The National Research Council framework for science education and the Next Generation Science Standards have developed a need for additional research and development of curricula that is both technologically model-based and includes engineering practices. This is especially the case for biology education. This paper describes a quasi-experimental design study to test the effectiveness of a model-based curriculum focused on the concepts of natural selection and population ecology that makes use of Excel modeling tools (Modeling Instruction in Biology with Excel, MBI-E). The curriculum revolves around the bio-engineering practice of controlling an invasive species. The study takes place in the Midwest within ten high schools teaching a regular-level introductory biology class. A post-test was designed that targeted a number of common misconceptions in both concept areas as well as representational usage. The results of a post-test demonstrate that the MBI-E students significantly outperformed the traditional classes in both natural selection and population ecology concepts, thus overcoming a number of misconceptions. In addition, implementing students made use of more multiple representations as well as demonstrating greater fascination for science.     

The uncertainty and fragility of learning to teach: a Britzmanian lens on a student teacher story

This paper turns the kaleidoscopic lens of Professor Deborah Britzman’s writings on a student teacher story of learning to teach. It begins by briefly setting the context for the research. It then explains the study’s ontological and epistemological focus on experience and how student teacher and researchers create expressions of experience through an interpretative process. This leads to the design for interpretation in this study and to an explanation of why the work of Britzman became part of the interpretative layering for understanding student teacher Ciara’s texts. It continues by explicating Britzman’s concept of ‘struggle for voice’ as a metaphor for learning to teach and briefly makes comparison with the work of Bakhtin and his concept of the dialogical imagination. It then presents the layered interpretation in the form of indicative excerpts in a chronological story. Finally it focuses on the salient and pervading theme of affect and offers a brief commentary on its significance in initial teacher education and the need for developing an understanding for the feeling world of learning to teach.     

Reframing the curriculum: a transformative approach

ABSTRACT

While acknowledging higher education’s complicity in inequality, the premise of this paper is that curriculum transformation can be one means of challenging and dismantling structural injustices towards the goal of equity of access and outcomes. Fraser’s multi-dimensional framework for social justice is drawn upon to explore what this transformation requires. The framework is used to critique a particular case of curriculum intervention, Education Development in South Africa. In Fraser’s terms, the interventions have been largely affirmative, not transformative. In addition, they have focused on only the first dimension of justice, redistribution, and have generally failed to attend to misrecognition and representation. Overall, we argue that the responses of higher education institutions in South Africa to the challenges of a globalised, pluralist world have been affirmative, not transformative. A transformative approach demands a ‘reframing’ of the curriculum. This involves adjusting the scale of the problem, interrogating assumptions informing the norms of the curriculum, questioning current boundaries between ‘mainstream’ and ‘other’ students and reviewing the fitness of the curriculum for a pluralist society. The paper concludes with recommendations for what such a reframing of the curriculum might entail.     

Erratum to: Urban High School Student Engagement through CincySTEM iTEST Projects

Journal of Science Education and Technology -     

Playing With Ideas: Evaluating the Impact of the Ultimate Block Party,a Collective Experiential Intervention to Enrich Perceptions of Play

Parental attitudes shape play opportunities afforded to children in home, community, and school settings. This study presents evaluation of an intervention designed to enrich parent's conception of play and its relationship with socially valued skills and capacities. On the basis of data from 291 racially and ethnically diverse parents/caregivers of young children (median age between 3 and 6) attending an event in NYC, we find the intervention helped parents conceptualize play in complex ways and altered perceptions of its impact on children's current—but not future—lives. Multivariate analyses reveal the causal pathway for these changes as exposure to multiple play sites, rather than time at the event—a finding with direct implications for exposing parents to developmental science in community settings.     

The degree to which students and teachers are involved in second-level school processes and participation in decision-making: an Irish Case Study

The Education Act (1998 Education Act. 1998. Dublin: Government Publications. [Google Scholar]) is a key policy document in Irish education, emphasising the rights, roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders, including parents, teachers and pupils in schools. Since 1998 the Department of Education and Skills (DES) has stressed the need to introduce an increased role for teachers and pupils in decision-making. It is therefore timely to explore the response of teachers and students to such a collaborative school environment in a rural second-level school of approximately 600 students. Transition year (TY) students (ages about 15–16) and their teachers were surveyed by questionnaire and interviewed. It finds that while the school is proactive in involving students and teachers in decision-making, a source of social, personal and professional empowerment, experienced teachers, and students in particular, want a more substantial voice. For example, most students want more say. They want class discussions or a vote, not just Student Council (SC) representation, on important and not just trivial issues. They want involvement before decisions are taken, with more feedback. Overall, participation is considered important by all stakeholders.     

Preservice elementary teachers' conceptions of moon phases before and after instruction

This study focused on the conceptual understandings held by 78 preservice elementary teachers about moon phases, before and after instruction. Participants in the physics groups received instruction on moon phases in an inquiry‐based physics course; participants in the methods group received no instruction on moon phases. The instructive effect of two different types of preinstruction interviews also was compared. The instruction on moon phases used in the study is from Physics by Inquiry by Lillian McDermott. In the study, the method of inquiry followed a qualitative design, involving classroom observations, document analysis, and structured interviews. Inductive data analysis identified patterns and themes in the participants' conceptual understanding. Results indicate that without the instruction, most preservice teachers were likely to hold alternative conceptions on the cause of moon phases. Participants who had the instruction were much more likely to hold a scientific understanding after instruction. The instruction appears to be more effective in promoting a scientific understanding of moon phases than instruction previously reported in the literature. It also appears that using a three‐dimensional model or making two‐dimensional drawings during the preinstruction interviews does not have instructive value. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 633–658, 2002     

Entertainment television and hearing students' attitudes regarding the pediatric cochlear implant

The cochlear implant, a bionic technology that restores sound sensation in some patients, has become ethically controversial in the 20 years since its introduction. This controversy recently has entered American entertainment culture, with the issue of pediatric implants emerging in episodes of popular TV programs. This pilot study examines the effects of one such TV episode on the attitudes of hearing college students with minimal prior exposure to the controversy, using a posttest-only control group design. The control group (N = 17) watched an unrelated entertainment video and filled out an original 10-item attitude scale. The treatment group (N = 18), which viewed an episode of the dramatic series Gideon's Crossing addressing the cochlear implant issue, also filled out the attitude scale. A t test was applied, and it was determined that no significant difference existed between the two groups' attitudes regarding pediatric cochlear implants. Although there was wide variability on individual items, overall scores indicated that both groups were neutral, or undecided, regarding cochlear implantation in children.     

A Study of Teacher Assessment at Key Stage 1

This paper is based on semi‐structured interviews with 59 Year 2 teachers across 45 schools in one LEA. It documents their practice of and attitudes to teacher assessment and it proposes a developmental model which describes and explains their approaches. The assessment of process skills is analysed and the effects of assessment on children's learning and teachers’ practice are discussed. The manageability of teacher assessment is also examined. The findings are linked with previous and subsequent studies on teacher assessment and suggestions for further research, based on these outcomes, are offered.     

Building Vocabulary Knowledge in Preschoolers Through Shared Book Reading and Gameplay

This study moves beyond previous investigations to examine whether an educational intervention combining shared book reading with a vocabulary game increases children's vocabulary knowledge. Four‐year‐olds (N = 44) were randomly assigned to dyads in either an intervention (shared book reading plus vocabulary review game) or comparison condition (shared book reading, after‐reading vocabulary review, and game that did not teach vocabulary). After two 30‐min sessions, results demonstrated that the intervention condition outperformed the comparison condition on measures of receptive and expressive knowledge of taught vocabulary words. Children in the intervention group who scored the lowest at pretest on the receptive measure saw the most gains in taught word knowledge. Findings suggest that combining vocabulary gameplay with shared book reading improved children's learning of the vocabulary words in comparison to a comparison group.