Conceptual change research and science education practice: a response from educators

We discuss the eight papers in this issue of Cultural Studies of Science Education focusing on the debate over conceptual change in science education and explore the issues that have emerged for us as we consider how conceptual change research relates to our practice as science educators. In presenting our interpretations of this research, we consider the role of participants in the research process and contextual factors in conducting research on science conceptions, and draw implications for the teaching of science.

Global Consultation Processes: Lessons Learned from Refugee Teacher Consultation Research in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The process of global consultation has received little attention despite its potential for promoting international mutual understanding with marginalized communities. This article details theory, entry, implementation, and evaluation processes for global consultation research, including lessons learned from our refugee teacher intervention. The first half of the article addresses the entry process, culture-specific strengths, and challenges that can be faced in global consultation, including our experience with a lack of formal regulatory oversight of refugee education. The second half of the article details feedback collected from consultants, peer trainers, and peer trainees indicating which training content was most valuable; how some Burmese refugee teachers strive for a more student-centered, “free” classroom for their refugee students; and, finally, the toll that intense refugee teacher consultation took on the consultants.     

Seeking Emergence Through Temporal Analysis of Collaborative-Group Discourse: A Complex-Systems Approach

Abstract

Research around problem solving in collaborative groups has made progress, but several conceptual and methodological issues remain. These issues include the appropriate choices of units of analysis; the ability of current theoretical sets of macrocognition codes to capture group dynamics; detection and identification of potentially emergent phenomena within groups; and the extent to which multiple dynamics are integral to understanding groups. Using data from a complex engineering challenge, we applied methods drawn from complex-systems analysis to offer insight into each of these issues, showing the need for multiple dimensions when studying group dynamics and highlighting methodological difficulties when dealing with emergent phenomena. We suggest future research to improve the understanding of the complex dynamics of collaborative groups.     

Shortcut ability in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus): The role of environmental and kinesthetic information

Shortcut ability in hamsters was tested in a complex wheel-shaped maze, in which kinesthetic information could be associated with environmental (proximal and/or distal) cues. The hamsters, previously trained to reach a hidden goal by a circumferential route, were led to the center of the maze to test their ability to take a directional shortcut to that same goal. In Experiment 1, their ability to accurately take a straight-line shortcut to the goal (from among eight possible paths) when distal cues were available was demonstrated. In Experiment 2, environmental information was neutralized in some conditions in order to enhance the relevance of kinesthetic information. When circumferential training runs were not too complex, the hamsters could use kinesthetic information—“path integration” processes—integrated during their previous training to infer the direction of the hidden goal.     

Refugee-Teacher-Train-Refugee-Teacher Intervention Research in Malaysia: Promoting Classroom Management and Teacher Self-Care

ABSTRACT

Given the current refugee crisis, the development of sustainable postconflict refugee education systems and supports is essential. The present study reports Resilient Refugee Education (RRE) intervention effects on refugee teacher confidence and knowledge of classroom management, in addition to refugee teacher self-care in Malaysia. We compared effects on (a) peer trainers, who were refugee teachers trained by consultants (n = 38), and (b) peer trainees, who were refugee teachers trained by peer trainers (n = 78). The sample included teachers who were refugees (n = 97; mean age = 30; 78% Burmese) and nonrefugees (n = 19; mean age = 48; 44% Chinese-Malaysian). Significant effects on teacher knowledge, confidence, and self-care were found for both trainers and trainees, including interactions with gender and education. Implications for sustainable promotion of the emotional context in refugee education are discussed.     

The development of trust in residential environmental education programs

Trust, a relational phenomenon that is an important building block of interpersonal relationships and within society, can also be an intermediary outcome of field-based environmental education programs. Trust creates a foundation for collaboration and decision-making, which are core to many ultimate outcomes of environmental education. Yet, understanding how trust develops among environmental education program participants is still nascent, partly because few methods exist for measuring trust in informal contexts, such as those that are common for many environmental education programs. Our study used social network analysis and qualitative data from focus groups, questionnaires, and participant observation to investigate the development of trust among residential environmental education program participants in two school groups, some of whom had initial familiarity with each other. Network data indicated differential increases in peer-to-peer trust among group members when measured at the individual level. Qualitative data from the focus groups highlighted salient dimensions of trust that were particularly relevant in this setting, including friendship, emotional and physical safety, and self-disclosure; reciprocal trust among peers and educators; and aspects of this immersive setting that fostered trust among the participants.     

The Reflective Model of Triadic Supervision: Defining an Emerging Modality

Current Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Eduational Programs (CACREP; 2001) standards promote the use of triadic supervision by counselor educators and supervisors. However, conceptual models of triadic supervision do not presently exist in the supervision literature. This article describes the process and structure of 1 model of triadic supervision (D. M. Kleist & N. R. Hill, 2003). This model provides a vehicle for implementing triadic supervision in response to changes in the CACREP standards and adds to the literature on triadic supervision. Implications for counselor educators and supervisors, as well as future research, are conceptualized.     

如此多的信息,如此少的时间--如何使用搜索引擎评估网络资源

虽然因特网上的信息爆炸已经让人们感到无所适从，但是其快速发展的趋势还未停止。在巨量的信息中找到有用信息方法之一是通过搜索引擎的使用，因此掌握有效的资源搜索策略，学会如何选择与使用搜索引擎成为了敲开因特网这个信息宝库的必备素质。     

Educating force multipliers: constructing terrorism in a US public high school

ABSTRACT

This article ethnographically explores a specialized Homeland Security program at a US public high school, paying careful attention to the program’s discursive constructions of terrorism and national security. In particular, this analysis examines how the Homeland Security program framed its study of national security as both anti-racist and objective. I contend that the invocation of anti-racism and objectivity can advance Orientalist discourses in the classroom. Critical education scholars need to address how teachers and students rely on liberal precepts like anti-racism to maintain dominant understandings of war, terror, and security.     

The irony of rigor: ‘no-excuses’ charter schools at the intersections of race and disability

Across the United States, the ‘no-excuses’ charter school movement featuring strict discipline policies and rigorous academic standards has gained popularity among schools serving poor and working-class students of color. In this article, we examine how Black and Latinx parents of students with disabilities¹ negotiated and experienced these charter school practices of rigor, which disciplined, managed, and regulated students’ social differences. Drawing from a yearlong qualitative research study, we examine interviews with Black and Latinx parents who experienced conflict with charter schools and the school lawyers, along with school artifacts we gathered such as parent handbooks and website information. We found parents experienced what we refer to as the ‘irony of rigor:’ the contradictory double-movement through which students of color with disabilities desired inclusion into ‘rigorous’ charter schools which then excluded them using ‘rigor’ as a central feature of student pushout practices. We present the irony of rigor in three interrelated acts: Act I: the lure of rigor (i.e. what drew parents to charter schools); Act II: the body meets rigor (i.e. how schools disciplined and managed student differences); and Act III: the consequences of rigor (i.e., what happened to students and parents while and after experiencing rigorous practices). We contextualize the irony of rigor within the relationship between disability, race, and neoliberalism.