A simple e-mail mechanism to enhance reflection, independence, and communication in young researchers

Providing undergraduates with mentored research experiences is a critical component of contemporary undergraduate science education. Although the benefits of undergraduate research experiences are apparent, the methods for mentoring young scientists as they first begin navigating the research lab environment are reinvented in labs all over the world. Students come to research labs with varied skills, motivations, needs, and dispositions, placing each student and mentor in a unique relationship. How can we help students become aware of their own intellectual progress? How can we encourage our students to take initial steps toward independent investigation? When do we need to let setbacks happen? We have developed a simple mechanism to address these common problems. Each week, students in our labs answer a series of five questions by e-mail that improve lab communication and help students develop into mature scientists without taxing an instructor's already busy schedule. Our observations, experiences, and student feedback indicate that this approach is a useful mechanism to help faculty who mentor young scientists in the research lab.     

Fragile knowledge of angle in turtle geometry

This paper describes an investigation into how the use of Logo affects children's basic knowledge of angle. It shows that teachers should not assume that unstructured use of Logo with a minimum of teacher intervention will have a beneficial effect on children's knowledge of angle and how it is measured. It appears to be the case that children make erroneous adjustments to their conceptual knowledge of angle in order to accommodate the results of an acquired procedural interaction with the computer.     

‘I don’t do the mothering role that lots of female teachers do’: male teachers,gender, power and social organisation

The present article reports on a research project investigating the experiences of male primary teachers in Queensland, Australia. While its findings cannot be presented as indicative of all male teachers in all contexts, it does, however, send a warning to policy‐makers that the employment of more male teachers may not be in the best interests of gender justice unless such strategies designed to attract more male teachers are informed by sophisticated understandings of gender and social power. Utilising a (pro) feminist post‐structuralist theoretical perspective, it is demonstrated how some male teachers contribute to the maintenance of segregated work roles, which is of central importance to the continuance of gender power differentials in a patriarchal society. The research method focused on social relationships and involved a series of semi‐structured/life history interviews with 11 male teachers, six female teachers, two male principals and two female principals. An important implication from this research is that the employment of male teachers must be accompanied by an awareness of how teacher practice impacts upon the socialisation of students and how such practice reinforces or contributes to change in the broader gender system.     

‘Bunking off’: The impact of truancy on pupils and teachers

There is widespread interest in the impact of unauthorised absence on pupil attainment, links with disaffection, exclusion from school and criminality. However, little is heard about what those who take unauthorised absence from school think that the effect has been on them; nor do we hear the voices of other pupils and their teachers. This article presents evidence from a one‐year study of absence in seven local authorities in England funded by the Department for Education and Skills. It defines ‘truancy’, explores some issues from existing literature on pupil non‐attendance, and presents evidence to show the impact that absence from school has on truants, other pupils and teachers. Finally, it suggests that although the greatest impact is on the academic and socio‐psychological development of persistent absentees, the attitudes and learning of other pupils and the workload and morale of teachers are also affected.     

John Dewey,William Wirt and the Gary Schools Plan: a centennial reappraisal

A century on from the height of John Dewey’s educational writings and the reputation of the Gary Schools Plan as a model of progressive education, the paper reappraises two key matters: the relationship between John Dewey and William Wirt, the first superintendent of the Gary Schools in Gary Indiana, and the coherence between John Dewey’s progressive pedagogies and the early years of the Gary Schools Plan. Through drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources of information, the paper analyses the connections between John Dewey, William Wirt and the Gary Schools Plan in their shared quest to extend progressive education into new urban and industrial schooling contexts. The paper highlights areas where existing assumptions require review and the extent to which the relationship and connections between Dewey and Wirt’s work were mutually beneficial. The paper ends by calling for further related research based on the archival material available.     

A comparative study of students' and their teacher's perceptions of laboratory work in secondary schools

This article reports on a study of student and teacher perceptions of the purpose and effectiveness of laboratory work in science at the Year 10 level of secondary school. The main focus of the study was a comparison between the perceptions of one class of students and their teacher at each of six different schools with regard to the aims, regularity, conduct and assessment of laboratory work. The study identified a number of areas of mismatch between students and their teachers. The findings of the study will be of use to teachers in developing and improving their science curriculum, particularly with regard to laboratory work.     

Conceptions of literacy in primary and secondary school teachers

Recently, teachers have been described as lacking an organised and consistent understanding of how children acquire literacy. Arguments about falling standards have been aired in the media, and links drawn between methods currently in favour in UK schools, and an apparent failure of children to acquire ‘basic skills'. Proposals have now been made by the Department for Education which give greater prominence to more structured, skill-based primary teaching which, it is claimed, will raise standards and better prepare children to meet the demands they face as they move into secondary school. This study analyses teachers’ conceptual maps of literacy teaching as the preliminary phase of a research programme aimed at describing and enhancing pupils’ functional use of literacy across the curriculum. The analysis is based on a four-quadrant model of adult-child proximation. Using a questionnaire format, important similarities and contrasts were found between the views of primary and secondary teachers. However, the study does reveal that teachers have complex models of literacy which underpin their work and do not adhere to simplistic, uni-dimensional methods.     

Interaction of efficacy,commitment, and expectations in the formation of faculty attitudes toward collective bargaining

A model of the formation of faculty attitudes toward collective bargaining is developed which reflects recent developments in theory and research in organizational behavior. The model is an alternative to those grounded in need-satisfaction theories and takes into account interaction effects among variables. Hypotheses are formulated which explore how faculty members develop: (1) beliefs about, and effective responses toward, their work environment; and (2) propensities to wish to change that environment by implementating collective bargaining. Empirical data are analyzed to assess the main effects of, and interactions among, organizational commitment, perceived personal efficacy, and expectations with respect to the impact of bargaining.An earlier draft of this article was presented before the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Chicago, March 1978.     

Differential adoption of study approaches within individual students

It has been claimed that the study approach adopted by a student will vary dependent, in part, upon the nature of the learning task at hand. The same student will change approaches from one task to another. The prime evidence for this claim seems to derive from two sources; reports from interview studies, and questionnaire studies comparing separate groups of students enrolled in different courses. In the present study questionnaire responses were collected from students asked to report comparatively on their learning approaches in two course units taken concurrently, and on their perceptions of how those same two units had been presented. The general support which was indeed found for the approach versus learning context claim was thus qualitatively different to, and genuinely strengthened, that from interview studies and that from between-groups studies. Moreover, relationships found between marks and both approach and learning context, within each compared course unit, provided support for a context to approach to performance model of influence.The research reported in this paper was supported from the recurrent funds of the Higher Education Advisory and Research Unit, Monash University.