Changes in primary science over the past decade: Implications for the research community

During the early 1980s in Australia there was a new wave of expectancy about primary science as new curricula were being considered or introduced and research findings were beginning to identify new directions for both teaching and research. In an expression of this, six authors were invited to present papers to a symposium on primary science held in 1984 to address the question: “What do you believe should be the state of primary science (in Australia) in 1995 and what are the steps which need to be taken to achieve the desired state?” This study set out to identify what had been said at that time, to compare that with actual developments, and to identify possible future directions for research. Relevant publications includingResearch in Science Education were analysed as a means of comparing what had happened since 1984 with the hopes of those authors. It was only in the latter half of the decade that some of the scenarios painted by the authors in 1984 began to emerge. A key implication for the research community drawn from the analysis shows that science education researchers have tended to neglect working in collaboration with education departments and authorities for the improvement of primary science education.     

RESEARCHING RESISTANCE: CAMPAIGNS AGAINST ACADEMIES IN ENGLAND

ABSTRACT:  This article uses social movement theory to analyse campaigns against a new type of government-sponsored school – the Academy – in four areas of England. It seeks to identify the social composition of anti-Academy campaigns, to track their encounters with proponents of the new schools and to describe the characteristic forms of their campaigning strategies. In doing so, the article aims to help place research into educational opposition and contestation closer to the centre of researchers' agendas.     

Using the newspaper to support children's emerging literacy

Young children's literacy development involves emerging knowledge, skills, and attitudes about both written and oral language. However, until relatively recent years, children's oral language development has received the lion's share of attention in most early childhood programs. What young children know about written language and their natural ability to learn about writing and reading have been underestimated and misinterpreted and so have received little developmentally appropriate support from early childhood program administrators, teachers, parents, and the public.June Rose Richie is Associate Professor of curriculum and instruction, while Janet E. Foster is Assistant Professor and John M. Johnston is Professor of early childhood education, at Memphis State University, Memphis, TN.     

Managing course design

Any complex activity, such as course design, which involves group work must be managed. In universities, where academics are not always familiar with managing, it is often unsystematic. A modest attention to management can help a project, and may pay dividends in the avoidance of waste, conflict, overruns of time or budget or other potential disasters. The author presents a comprehensive framework for the various aspects of managing that may be needed and offers an extended checklist.     

Arm-waving Mathematics: Sound,if Not Rigorous

This article suggestes some teachniques, herein referred to as ‘arm-waving’, which utilise analogies, graphs and examples to illustrate the contribution of mathematisc to statistical concepts without a rigorous treatment of the mathematics used.     

Perspectives on the standards agenda: exploring the agenda's impact on primary teachers' professional identities

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate teachers' perspectives on the practical implementation of the standards agenda and its impact on their professional identities. Q-methodology was used alongside semi-structured interviews with UK primary school teachers. The study explored the views of 25 teachers in six schools, selected through purposive sampling to give a range of individual and institutional demographics. Teachers in this research commented on the impact the standards agenda has had on parental and societal judgements that affect their identity as professionals. Teachers held differing positions on whether they experienced constraint or flexibility when implementing standards objectives. These differing positions were mainly influenced by whether they taught above or below Year 3. Teachers who found flexibility in the agenda's objectives had less occupational stress and increased ownership of their own actions and the standards agenda. Teachers' positions were complex and changed according to situational influences at a classroom level.     

Identification of the Gifted Redefined With Ethics and Equity in Mind

Throughout his focus article, Robert Sternberg discusses the theoretical underpinnings and rationale behind his emerging Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership (ACCEL) model. In the process, he raises several critically important issues, including the misuse of IQ testing as the major method for identifying gifted students, the need to address real-life problems by focusing on creativity and concerned citizenship, and the potential for principled, ethical leadership to make a real difference in the world now and in the future. The intent of this response article is to pick up on these major themes, extend the conversation, emphasize the necessity for expanding enrichment programming to include marginalized young people for whom the playing field is not level, and help set the stage for wider implementation of the ACCEL framework to enhance identification, instruction, and learning in gifted education.