Media and the Museum: A Response to Learning Science in Informal Environments

Abstract Digital environments are one of the newest methods of resource‐ and program‐creation to be added to the museum toolkit, and are increasingly employed by museums across all fields to support learning. Unfortunately, this category is also one of the least‐fleshed‐out components in the Learning Science in Informal Environments (LSIE) chapter devoted to media. The report does not take into account the increasingly interwoven nature of media resources, particularly those found in digital environments. It is imperative that museums both become familiar with the breadth of research that is available related to digital environments and that they continue to specifically build an understanding of how this works in a museum setting.     

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In secondary schools, subjects dominate teaching and also the organizational structures. Typically, subject department heads perform a middle-management role in secondary schools and often this role is taken-for-granted and unquestioned. In this article, we examine the impact on secondary school culture and the resulting changes to practice when the department middle-management structure and roles are open to revision. We investigate the experiences of two schools that are part of a longitudinal study on reculturing and restructuring in all secondary schools in one school district in Ontario, Canada. Our research indicates that structural change initiated by school level participants is a prerequisite to real change and that structural changes preceded cultural changes. However, it is the process of creating the new structures that is the key consideration as mandating an alternative might not be facilitative of cultural change. The primary research question guiding this article is: what impact does involvement in restructuring a middle-management organizational model have on the culture of a school and the change process experienced by staff members?     

Situated Self-Regulation: Modeling the Interrelationships Among Instruction,Assessment, Learning Strategies and Academic Performance

To succeed academically, college students must actively construct course information, synthesize this information with information from texts and other resources, understand this information so that they can succeed on various forms of assessments and ultimately retain this information for the long term. While the complexity of these demands has been modeled somewhat metaphorically, there has been little ecologically valid research into learning in authentic classroom contexts. The present study examines the interrelationships among student perceptions of the learning context, test complexity, study strategies, and academic performance. Results of a path analysis demonstrated that perceptions of the teaching format and test complexity were positively related to the study strategies reported, and these study strategies were further related to the reported course performance.     

Development of an Early Hebrew Oral Reading Fluency Measure

Currently, there are no Hebrew (L2) reading assessments that have been tested to obtain evidence for reliability and validity on which to base decisions about Hebrew instruction. The authors developed a Hebrew benchmark assessment tool for first grade students modeled after Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, a standardized test of accuracy and fluency used to identify at-risk students and to monitor student progress. Results of pilot data collection (N=53) provide evidence for strong alternate form reliability for this measure, as well as evidence for content, face and criterion-related validity. Future directions for research and development are discussed.     

Student attitudes towards internship experiences: From theory to practice

Traditionally, internships have provided a unique way for criminal justice students to gain work experience while earning academic credit. Questions remain, however, as to whether a student's educational experiences adequately reflect the realities of internship (and other work-related) experiences. As part of a larger study, we sought to explore student views and attitudes regarding their undergraduate curriculum and its relevance to their experiences at the criminal justice agencies. Through the use of self-report surveys, findings were two-fold, indicating tremendous support for internship programs. Moreover, (1) students felt their undergraduate curricula adequately reflected the practical realities of criminal justice operations, and (2) internships were regarded as invaluable in preparing students for criminal justice careers.     

Achievement and Climate Outcomes for the Knowledge is Power Program in an Inner-City Middle School

This study was designed to examine the effects of a whole school reform, the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), specifically designed to raise academic achievement of at-risk urban middle school students by establishing an extended school day and year, a rigorous curriculum, after-school access to teachers, and increased family-school connections. In our mixed-methods design, qualitative (interview and observation) and quantitative (survey and achievement test) measures are employed to determine first-year program implementation and student outcomes for the KIPP:DIAMOND (Daring Individual Achievers Making Outstanding New Dreams) Academy (KIPP:DA), an inner-city school in a large, high-poverty urban district. For the achievement analyses, 49 KIPP:DA students were individually matched to highly comparable control students of the same ethnicity, socioeconmic status, gender, and ability, who attended different district schools in the same neighborhood. Statistically significant and educationally meaningful advantages for KIPP:DA students were found on 4 out of 6 standardized tests. The achievement results are interpreted in relation to the key program elements, the positive school climate established, and the quality of the 1st-year implementation.     

An Examination of Black Science Teacher Educators’ Experiences with Multicultural Education, Equity, and Social Justice

Diversity, multicultural education, equity, and social justice are dominant themes in cultural studies (Hall in Cultural dialogues in cultural studies. Routledge, New York, pp 261–274, 1996; Wallace 1994). Zeichner (Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 737–759, 2005) called for research studies of teacher educators because little research exists on teacher educators since the late 1980s. Thomson et al. (2001) identified essential elements needed in order for critical multiculturalism to be infused in teacher education programs. However, little is known about the commitment and experiences of science teacher educators infusing multicultural education, equity, and social justice into science teacher education programs. This paper examines twenty (20) Black science teacher educators’ teaching experiences as a result of their Blackness and the inclusion of multicultural education, equity, and social justice in their teaching. This qualitative case study of 20 Black science teacher educators found that some of them have attempted and stopped due to student evaluations and the need to gain promotion and tenure. Other participants were able to integrate diversity, multicultural education, equity and social justice in their courses because their colleagues were supportive. Still others continue to struggle with this infusion without the support of their colleagues, and others have stopped The investigators suggest that if science teacher educators are going to prepare science teachers for the twenty first century, then teacher candidates must be challenged to grapple with racial, ethnic, cultural, instructional, and curricular issues and what that must mean to teach science to US students in rural, urban, and suburban school contexts.     

Physica: A Computer Environment for Physics Problem-Solving

Physica is an integrated software package designed as part of a course for distance learning students from non-traditional educational backgrounds. It gives students access to an extensive hyperlinked physics glossary, computer algebra and graph-plotting tools. The package aims to give students a framework for solving physics problems and to help them acquire some higher level skills of quantitative problem-solving. This paper outlines rationales underlying various protocols for solving physics problems, and discusses the extent to which frameworks may be useful in helping students develop appropriate strategies for representing problems in formal terms, selecting targets, planning solutions and checking answers. Pedagogical issues underlying the design and implementation of the software are discussed.