Science Teachers’ Perceived Benefits of an Out‐of‐school Enrichment Programme: Identity needs and university affordances

Science enrichment programmes housed outside traditional school settings offer unique opportunities to access and use authentic scientific tools and practices, especially for urban students whose school science experiences often lack resources. Yet opportunities to access these tools and practices are realized only when science teachers value them sufficiently to take advantage of them. This study examines how eight urban secondary science teachers evaluated a specific out‐of‐school science enrichment programme—a one‐year partnership with a local university science outreach centre, which culminated in a half‐day laboratory experience for their students. Teachers’ perceptions were captured through interviews and surveys. Findings indicate that these teachers came to identify and value many of the potential benefits for out‐of‐school enrichment programmes reported in the literature as well as some additional ones. The teachers’ also showed a shift over time with respect to their perceptions of the value of the out‐of‐school experience, moving from an initial focus on increasing test scores toward a greater appreciation for its impact on students’ motivation and identity development. The study offers insight into secondary science students’ and teachers’ identity needs, and what universities can offer to address them.     

Associations Between Family Structure Change and Child Behavior Problems: The Moderating Effect of Family Income

This study investigated conditions under which family structure matters most for child well‐being. Using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 3,936), a national sample of U.S. families, it was estimated how changes in family structure related to changes in children's behavior between age 3 and 12 separately by household income level to determine whether associations depended on families' resources. Early changes in family structure, particularly from a two‐biological‐parent to single‐parent family, predicted increases in behavior problems more than later changes, and movements into single and stepparent families mattered more for children of higher versus lower income parents. Results suggest that for children of higher income parents, moving into a stepfamily may improve, not undermine, behavior.     

Independent study: Continuing professional development in distance education

Abstract

The Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) of Costa Rica has admitted over 80,000 students in its seventeen‐year history. However, total enrollment figures are an insufficient measure of the institution's success in achieving its mission of democratizing higher education in Costa Rica. This article examines the issue of student drop‐out in an attempt to determine ways in which UNED can best and most realistically achieve the goal of increased access to higher education.     

Contradictions in educational policy: implementing integrated problem‐based environmental health curriculum in a high stakes environment

In this paper, we focus on the efforts of educators at nine different research sites within the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), to develop and implement innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum on the relationship of the environment and human health. The NIEHS correctly maintained that the interdisciplinary nature of learning about environmental health would improve students’ learning across several subject areas and should, therefore, contribute to students scoring higher on state’s subject area based standardized tests. However, these goals were undermined by state polices linking standardized tests with student promotion and graduation, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that required public schools and districts to aggregate test scores which might have negative consequences, such as reducing school funding or privatizing school administration and state policies. These policies resulted in deleterious effects that undermined implementing environmental health curricula.     

Graduate Experience in Science Education: the development of a science education course for biomedical science graduate students

The University of Rochester's Graduate Experience in Science Education (GESE) course familiarizes biomedical science graduate students interested in pursuing academic career tracks with a fundamental understanding of some of the theory, principles, and concepts of science education. This one-semester elective course provides graduate students with practical teaching and communication skills to help them better relate science content to, and increase their confidence in, their own teaching abilities. The 2-h weekly sessions include an introduction to cognitive hierarchies, learning styles, and multiple intelligences; modeling and coaching some practical aspects of science education pedagogy; lesson-planning skills; an introduction to instructional methods such as case studies and problem-based learning; and use of computer-based instructional technologies. It is hoped that the early development of knowledge and skills about teaching and learning will encourage graduate students to continue their growth as educators throughout their careers. This article summarizes the GESE course and presents evidence on the effectiveness of this course in providing graduate students with information about teaching and learning that they will use throughout their careers.     

Racial Diversity in the Schools: A Necessary Evil?

White teachers see racial diversity in the schools as a “necessary evil.” Common beliefs are that a) Black students are saved by nurturing White teachers and well-behaved White children, and b) White students learn from “disadvantaged“ Black children the dual lesson of empathy and gratitude.     

Unmasking moral dichotomies: can feminist pedagogy overcome student resistance?

Scholarship on feminist pedagogy suggests that challenges to traditional forms of knowledge help university students overcome resistance to discussions about oppression. Because students assume that ‘truth’ is objective, they are unwilling to consider alternative voices from the ‘margins’. This paper theoretically argues and empirically examines whether feminist pedagogy expands students' morally dichotomous frameworks and, thus, decreases students' avoidance, denial, and resentment towards critical analysis. I showed students in three Women, Gender and Society classes videos I created that depicted a lecturer and three students negotiating gendered‐conflict in the classroom. My goal was to see if exposure to feminist pedagogy throughout the semester reduced the likelihood that students used morally, dichotomous frameworks to resist engaging in analysis about oppression, inequality and difference.