The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) for use in Biology

This paper describes a newly adapted instrument for measuring novice-to-expert-like perceptions about biology: the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Biology (CLASS-Bio). Consisting of 31 Likert-scale statements, CLASS-Bio probes a range of perceptions that vary between experts and novices, including enjoyment of the discipline, propensity to make connections to the real world, recognition of conceptual connections underlying knowledge, and problem-solving strategies. CLASS-Bio has been tested for response validity with both undergraduate students and experts (biology PhDs), allowing student responses to be directly compared with a consensus expert response. Use of CLASS-Bio to date suggests that introductory biology courses have the same challenges as introductory physics and chemistry courses: namely, students shift toward more novice-like perceptions following instruction. However, students in upper-division biology courses do not show the same novice-like shifts. CLASS-Bio can also be paired with other assessments to: 1) examine how student perceptions impact learning and conceptual understanding of biology, and 2) assess and evaluate how pedagogical techniques help students develop both expertise in problem solving and an expert-like appreciation of the nature of biology.     

Shunning the Bird’s Eye View: General Science in the Schools of Ontario and Quebec

This paper considers the adoption of general science courses in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec, during the 1930s. In Ontario, a few science teachers had followed the early general science movements in the United States and Britain with interest. During the 1930s, several developments made the cross-disciplinary, applied thrust of general science particularly appealing to Ontario educationists. These developments included a new demand for vocational education, renewed reservations about pedagogical rationales based on transfer of training, and a growing professional divide between high school science teachers and university scientists. Around the same time, scientists in the Quebec’s French-language universities were engaged in a concerted campaign to expand the place of science in the province’s francophone secondary schools. The province’s prestigious classical colleges, which were the scientists’ principal target for reform, privileged an inductive view of science that had little in common with the applied, cross-disciplinary emphasis of the general science courses gaining support in English-speaking school systems. In 1934, however, a popular American general science textbook was adopted in a workers’ cooperative devoted to adult education. Comparing the fate of general science within these two education systems draws attention to the fact that general science made inroads in francophone Quebec but had little influence in public and private schools. In light of the growing support general science enjoyed elsewhere, we are led to explore why general science met with little overt interest by Quebec scientists pushing for school science reform during the 1930s.     

John Dewey and the Artful Life

REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN SPEECHES: 1952–1953. Edited by A. Craig Baird. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1953; pp. 199. $1.75.

IT TAKES TIME: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION. By Marie I. Rasey. New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1953; pp. 204. $3.00.

YOUR VOICE AND SPEECH. By Letitia Raubicheck. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1953; pp. 376. $4.05.

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL EMCEE. By Le‐Roy Stahl. Minneapolis: T. S. Denison and Co., 1953; pp. 200. $2.75.

GROUPS IN HARMONY AND TENSION. By Muzafer Sherif and Carolyn W. Sherif. New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1953; pp. 316. $3.50.

EFFECTIVE READING. By Lawrence H. Feigenbaun. New York: Globe Book Company, 1953: pp. 224. $2.00.

READING SKILLS. By William D. Baker. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1953; pp. 120. $1.50.

WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Co., 1953; pp. xxxvi+1724. $5.00 plain edges, $6.00 thumb‐indexed.

THE ROMANCE OF THE ENGLISH THEATRE. By Donald Brook. (Revised Edition). London: Rockliff (Macmillan), 1953; pp. 222. $4.50.

REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN PLAYS, FROM 1767 TO THE PRESENT. Edited by Arthur Hobson Quinn. (Seventh Edition). New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts, Inc., 1953: pp. 1248. $6.50.

APPROACHES TO POETRY. By Walter Blair and W. K. Chandler. (Second Edition). New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts, 1953; pp. 734. $3.90.

POEMS FOR STUDY. By Leonard Unger and William Van O'Connor. New York: Rinehart, 1953: pp. xxi+743. $4.75.

THE BURLESQUE TRADITION IN THE ENGLISH THEATRE AFTER 1660. By V. C. Clinton‐Baddeley. London: Methuen &; Co., 1952; pp. xvi+152. $4.00.

THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES. Revised from Peter Roget by D. C. Browning. New York: E. P. Dutton &; Co., Inc., 1953; pp. 572. $3.75.     

A ‘whole-school/community development’ approach to preventing and countering bullying: the Erris Anti-Bullying Initiative (2009–2011)

This paper describes how a ‘whole-school/community development’ anti-bullying programme was designed, implemented and evaluated in an initiative in Erris, Co. Mayo, Ireland, involving local primary and post-primary schools and community groups. Students from seven participating schools (five primary, two post-primary) completed modified versions of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire both prior to and following programme implementation. Thereafter, there were reductions in students' reports of involvement in bully/victim problems and increases in their reports of feelings about bullying and countering bullying that were consistent with an anti-bullying ethos. The sizes of these effects were modest, in some cases perhaps due to the significantly low incidence of students' involvement in bully/victim problems prior to the programme. This model is in continued use in Erris, and in its further development it is intended to seek out opportunities to implement and evaluate it in other locations.     

Knowing,researching, and reporting science education: Lessons from science and technology studies

Recent research in science and technology studies changed the way we understand science as it is practiced—that is, how scientific knowledge emerges from social, natural, social, political, cultural, historical, and economic contingencies of scientific work. Many science educators agree that students should learn not only science but also about science. In this article, we (a) outline important findings, research methods, and ways of reporting research that emerged from science and technology studies; and (b) show how familiarity with science and technology studies research can provide science educators with valuable insights about curriculum design and research on learning. We conclude that science and technology studies can serve as a resource to science education and that there is a potential for conducting collaborative work between science education and science and technology studies. Such collaborations have the potential to yield better theories about how people become competent in science from childhood to adulthood. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 213–235, 1998.     

Portfolio Assessment: More Than ABCs and 123s

Demands for educational accountability are being called for at all levels: preschool through graduate school. Standardized tests are being widely utilized, but this measurement is not appropriate for young children. Portfolio assessment is a more promising approach to measure children's growth, development, and achievement. This paper outlines criteria that portfolios must have in order to be effective assessment tools. Methods of gathering information and tips for portfolio development are shared and several examples of children's work samples are included     

Shrink-film microfluidic education modules: Complete devices within minutes

As advances in microfluidics continue to make contributions to diagnostics and life sciences, broader awareness of this expanding field becomes necessary. By leveraging low-cost microfabrication techniques that require no capital equipment or infrastructure, simple, accessible, and effective educational modules can be made available for a broad range of educational needs from middle school demonstrations to college laboratory classes. These modules demonstrate key microfluidic concepts such as diffusion and separation as well as "laboratory on-chip" applications including chemical reactions and biological assays. These modules are intended to provide an interdisciplinary hands-on experience, including chip design, fabrication of functional devices, and experiments at the microscale. Consequently, students will be able to conceptualize physics at small scales, gain experience in computer-aided design and microfabrication, and perform experiments-all in the context of addressing real-world challenges by making their own lab-on-chip devices.     

National institutions, public-private knowledge flows, and innovation performance: A comparative study of the biotechnology industry in the US and France

The biotechnology industry is a striking example of the disconnect between the location of knowledge creation and its commercial development. I argue that national technological performance in biotechnology is critically affected by institutions governing scientific careers, which shape the professional identities and boundary-spanning activities of research scientists. I test this in a comparison of the United States and France. Drawing on fieldwork and analysis of patent data, I compare institutional frameworks and estimate models of forward patent citations. The models show that entrepreneurial firms are associated with high-performing innovations in this sector whereas large established firms perform poorly in both countries, and highlight the importance of institutions in creating country-specific combinations of human capital with organizational capabilities.