Supporting young children's explanations through inquiry science in preschool

This study examines the ways in which preschool teachers support the development of children's explanatory language through science inquiry. Two classrooms in a preschool center using a science inquiry curriculum were videotaped during a 5-week unit on color mixing. Videotapes were analyzed for how teachers facilitated children's explanatory language. An assessment of explanatory language was administered to 47 children in the center before and after the color mixing unit. Analysis of discourse revealed that teachers engaged children as conversational partners and as scientific investigators responsible for their own learning. Explanations were dynamically co-constructed by adults and children within the context of participation in scientific inquiry. By the end of the unit, children produced more on-topic responses, more standard color-mixing terms, and more causal connectives in their responses to the assessment of explanatory language.     

Internationalization of universities: A university culture-based framework

This paper employs Sporn's(1996) organizational culture typology indeveloping a framework to assist in theunderstanding of the process ofinternationalization of universities. Both thecollegial process and executive authority areacknowledged as necessary to position theuniversity to bring about substantive,integrated, university-wideinternationalization in response to pervasiveand rapidly changing global environmentaldemands. Internationalization, viewed as anorganizational adaptation, requires itsarticulation by the leadership whilesimultaneously institutionalizing a strategicplanning process that is representative andparticipative in that it recognizes andutilizes the power of the culture within whichit occurs. The orientation and strength of theuniversity culture and the functioningstructure can be inhibiting or facilitating ofthe strategies employed to advanceinternationalization. Two examples arejuxtaposed to illustrate the range ofcircumstances confronting universities in acomplex and dynamic external environment andtheir responses with respect tointernationalization. Drawing from theseexamples, discussion centers on the alignmentof internal culture with theinternationalization objectives and strategiesselected by the institution in order to enhanceeffectiveness of outcomes. It is concludedthat the framework provided helps to understandthe different approaches tointernationalization and may be helpful fromboth a managerial and research perspective.     

The Effect of Cooperative Groups on Regular Class Spelling Achievement of Special Needs Learners

This study examined the utility of cooperative groups as a technology for mainstreaming academically deficit students in a regular fourth grade classroom. Twenty‐seven students (mean age 8.6 years), including five targeted special needs learners, took a weekly spelling test of 20 words chosen from the fourth grade reader. A return to baseline research design indicated that cooperative groups promoted higher academic mastery among those with special needs and regular education learners when compared with two types of individualistic techniques. Results support the use of cooperative groups as a technique for academic as well as social mainstreaming in the regular classroom.     

Developing a Research Agenda in Science Education

The Science Summit reinforced a question upon which many of us in science education are focused: How can we, the science education community of researchers, practitioners, and consumers, lead policy? We include a brief review of the No Child Left Behind Act and its implications for teachers, and elaborate about one ongoing and growing effort to answer the concerns about the paucity of research expressed at the Summit. We describe a unique and growing collaboration across professional science education and science organizations and societies that focuses on the development of a research agenda. The term ‘consilience’ refers to the “jumping together of knowledge” that leads to scientific advancements, progressive, creative, fluid scientific research and intellectual capacity to move a research community toward an enlightened research agenda. A coherent research agenda enables us to specify what we know, what we need to know, and how research can be employed for creating and implementing policy. The use of a dynamic organizer (such as Pasteur’s Quadrant) for a research matrix of topics provides a possible structure for organizing and cataloging research questions, designs, findings from past studies, needed areas for research, and policy implications. Through this unique collaboration, the science education community can better focus on needs and priorities and ensure that teachers, policy makers, scientists, and researchers in education at local through national levels have an important stake in research priorities and actions.     

The pedagogical benefits of enacting positive psychology practices through a student–faculty partnership approach to academic development

Academic development that supports the enactment of positive psychology practices through student–faculty pedagogical partnership can increase faculty confidence and capacity in their first year in a new institution. When student partners practice affirmation and encouragement of strengths-based growth, processes of faculty acclimation and self-authoring can be accelerated. This article presents a student–faculty pedagogical partnership program and positive psychology practices that focus on faculty strengths and capacities as the foundation for reinforcing and revising existing pedagogical strategies and for sustaining energy for continued development. It combines collaborative autoethnographic and comparative case study approaches to investigate the pedagogical benefits of these practices.     

Community college student-parents: priorities for persistence

This study of community college student-parents used interpretive phenomenological analysis of interview data contributed by 15 participants from three Mountain West Community Colleges. The participants qualified by the following criteria: had delayed college entrance by 2 years or more, had a child not yet in kindergarten, were full-time students in an associate degree program, worked part-time, and had 15 credits or more toward their degree. This study revealed what it meant for student-parents to have success while they addressed the challenges of balancing work, home, child care, and academic responsibilities. The student-parents described experiences that required prioritizing responsibilities, managing time effectively, securing needed support services, addressing stress, developing strategies for study and parenting, and maintaining a positive mindset. The findings include quotations that describe the challenges of each student-parent; whether individually unique, conflicting, or shared by the subset of this nontraditional student group. The student-parents shared a common sense of resolve to use prioritizing strategies as they made decisions affecting their degree completion. Student-parents had the common goal to obtain a better life for themselves and their children.