SCAFFOLDING THE INQUIRY CONTINUUM AND THE CONSTITUTION OF IDENTITY

This article considers the impact of scaffolding on pre-service science teachers’ constitution of identities as teachers of inquiry. This scaffolding has consisted of 2 major components, a unit on current electricity which encompasses the inquiry continuum and an open inquiry which is situated in context of classroom practice. Our analysis indicates 2 major themes. The first is the importance of scaffolding inquiry as a strategy for engaging in the discourses, experiences, and emotions that are foundational to the constitution of identity from the post-structural perspective. The second theme is that the opportunity to conduct an open inquiry, while concurrently considering its pedagogical implications, provides our pre-service teachers with an appreciation of the value of inquiry.     

Discourse, the moral imperative and Faraday’s candle

This commentary considers two lines of inquiry into the work of Ideland and Malmberg: the role of discourse in shaping teachers’ responses to Roberts’ (2011) Visions of Science and the moral imperatives that will accompany any shifts between Vision I and II. Vision I of science has accreted to itself great power and prestige, both of which shape notions of a ‘good’ science education. Any shift towards Vision II will require serious engagement in a Foucaultian discourse into the issues of power, inclusion and exclusion that Ideland and Malmberg describe. Similarly, the moral imperatives that arise require courage to both contest the status quo in science education, and develop a reasoned, morally defensible, response to the challenge that Vision II is really a form of ideological activism.     

The renaissance engineer: ideas from physics

In the UK many physicists become engineers. Despite not being a formation route specifically designed for engineering, it brings advantages, particularly with respect to the concept of the 'renaissance engineer', in terms of flexibility and ability to tackle interdisciplinary problems, to provide innovative solutions and to introduce new technology. It is suggested that lessons can be learned from this to develop an efficient formation for the 'renaissance engineer of tomorrow'.     

Metaphorical duality: High school subject departments as both communities and organizations

This article investigates the metaphorical duality that exists when school subject departments are concurrently conceptualized as both communities and organizations. Employing a narrative methodology, we use the metaphorical duality to examine the manner in which science teachers negotiate two key aspects of their work; professional learning and teacher leadership. The reified meanings that the department (as community) negotiates are the foundations for the actions that the department (as organization) takes. It is this sense of understanding and commitment to the department as community that provides the department as organization with its political power within a school.     

CURRICULUM REFORM AND A SCIENCE DEPARTMENT: A BOURDIEUIAN ANALYSIS

This article will describe the dispositions of science teachers in the context of a curriculum reform. Using Bourdieu’s notions of ‘habitus’ and ‘the field,’ the analysis of the data highlights the necessity for curriculum reformers to view the field of the science department as a contested space. From this understanding flow several subsidiary issues: the need to promote disequilibrium and critical conversations around the meanings and practices of science education within the department, and the need to value and capitalise on the symbolic capital of teacher credibility. The article concludes by briefly critiquing recent curriculum reforms in Australia.     

A study in semantics in industry today

This paper combines an interactionist perspective with a rules‐based approach for the purpose of analyzing and evaluating organizations. It is suggested that an organization is analogous to a culture and that it can be analyzed by identifying its collectively defined master contract. It may be critiqued by assessing the process by which that master contract is communicated among its members. The organization and its individual members can then be evaluated according to the competence with which members can coorient themselves to the master contract and can coordinate their activities within the constitutive and regulative rules established by the organization. A case study suggests this new approach to organizational communication will be a useful one for communication theory as well as for consultants.     

Bourdieu,Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan’s department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions—the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum ‘coverage’.     

Behavioral contrast as a function of component duration for leverpressing using a within-session procedure

Ten rats pressed levers for food reinforcers delivered by multiple schedules. Behavioral contrast was measured using a within-session procedure that presented the baseline and contrast schedules within single sessions. The absolute sizes of both positive and negative contrast increased and then decreased as components lengthened. Negative induction occurred when components were very short. These results question theories that predict that the size of contrast will vary inversely with component duration. They support theories that attribute positive and negative contrast to similar theoretical mechanisms. A comparison of the present results with those of past studies indicates that keypecking by pigeons and leverpressing by rats change as different functions of component duration. Treadlepressing by pigeons and leverpressing by rats change as similar functions. These findings challenge general process theories that argue that all responses obey the same behavioral laws.