The effect of an informal science intervention on middle school girls’ science affinities

This study investigates the impact of an informal science outreach programme built around theories of identity formation and self-efficacy on middle school girls’ science affinities. A lottery-based, randomised control trial was used to identify programme effects on four science affinity outcomes: science interests, efficacy with science, science attitudes, and science identity. A multivariate analysis of variance demonstrated that programme participants scored higher than their control group peers on weighted composite of post-programme affinity indicators. These results suggest that informal science education may offer a venue through which to support the formation of science identities and efficacy in girls. Implications for including psychosocial support elements into science classroom pedagogy and science education standards are discussed.     

Science concept learning by English as second language junior secondary students

Recent Chinese migrant students from Taiwan studying science in two Australian secondary schools were found to explain the meanings of selected science concept labels in English by translating from Chinese. The research strategy involved interviewing the students concerning their recognition and comprehension of the science concept labels firstly in Chinese and then in English. Mean recognition and comprehension scores were higher in Chinese than in English, with indications that Chinese language and science knowledge learnt in Chinese deteriorated with increasing time of residence in Australia. Rudimentary signs of the students being able to switch between Chinese and English knowledge bases in science were also found. Implications for teaching science to ESL students and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Research and development at the Children's Television Workshop

Since its establishment in 1968, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW)—as a matter of policy—has incorporated research into the process of designing and producing educational materials. The first CTW project to use this team approach wasSesame Street, the educational television series created for in-home viewing by preschoolers. Today, the scope of CTW's efforts has widened dramatically to include other media (home video, print, computer software), other learning environments (schools, community organizations, afterschool child-care settings), and other national cultures. This article introduces this issue ofETR&D, which has been authored entirely by CTW researchers, producers, and executives. It describes CTW's approach to research and development, and sets out in broad terms the opportunities and constraints imposed by the environments in which the various projects and productions function.     

The academic research-teaching nexus in eight advanced-industrialized countries

The purpose of this study is to examine the internationalcomplexities of the research-teaching nexus in higher educationalinstitutions. The Carnegie International Survey of the Academic Professionis employed to compare teaching and research activities in eight countries.These countries include the former West Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, TheUnited States, Australia, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. Findings revealthat teaching and research are not mutually exclusive activities in thework/life of faculty. Research oriented faculty are more likely to viewtheir research commitments as being competitive with teaching. Research isfound to positively affect teaching, but attributes of teaching (e.g.,course load, student demand, etc.) negatively impact research. In addition,the paper finds academic orientation and the number of articles publishedduring the past three years to be the most important factors in determiningthe number of weekly hours spent on research and teaching activities.     

Development and Use of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory

This paper describes how research into approaches to university teaching, from a relational perspective, has been used to develop an inventory to measure the key aspects of the variation in approaches to teaching. The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) is one of several that derive from the research perspective applied by Marton and colleagues in Europe (Marton, F., Hounsell, D., and Entwistle, N. (eds.) (1997). The Experience of Learning, 2nd edn., Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh) to student learning. A feature of these inventories is that they measure the response of a group to a particular context, rather than more general characteristics of individuals in that group. Studies using these inventories have consistently shown relations between students' approaches to learning and the quality of their learning outcome. The question of interest to many university teachers is whether there are relations between the way teachers approach their teaching and ways their students approach their learning. This question was answered in a study published in 1999 that used the ATI to show that teacher-focused approaches to teaching were associated with students' reproducing orientations. Subsequent research revealed that in subjects where teachers adopted more student-focused approaches to teaching, their students adopted a deeper approach to learning. Some recent research using the inventory is reviewed along with an analysis of the validity of the ATI. The current version of the inventory is reproduced in this paper.     

Perceptions of the Value of Quality Assessment in Scottish Higher Education

The 1992–93 session in Scottish universities saw the introduction of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's (SHEFC) statutory requirement to introduce quality assessments of teaching and learning. This paper looks at some of the issues that have arisen from the experience of staff at Napier University in terms of being assessed. It focuses on the issues that have arisen from the first and second round of visits to institutions. The key questions and problems associated with the process are considered in the context of the following headings: (1) defining quality; (2) the role of the lead assessor; (3) the framework for the visit; (4) the role of the student; (5) the quality of the reports; (6) the cost benefit analysis. SHEFC's stated aims for assessment are evaluated in the light of the above.     

DILEMMAS AT A DISTANCE

This paper addresses some of the situations and problems to be found in distance learning for both the teacher and learner. It looks at the general needs of distance learning and, implicitly, on the strategies used to provide feedback in both directions. It uses as examples courses given by live television to branch campus students at distances of 30 to 120 miles from the instructor. Some solutions are suggested to the difficulties found in this specific situation, which should be able to be translated into other learning situations.