Factors perceived to have enabled 25 women to develop expertise to teach primary science

This paper outlines the findings of a study which involved expert/committed female primary science teachers and examined their perceptions of the main factors that led to the development of their expertise. The study focuses on the women's formal education, early influences outside formal education and their recent training and development. The last of these is the main one identified in research literature as having influenced people to develop an interest in teaching primary science. Specializations: training and development, primary science and technology curriculum development.     

Educating pre-service teachers: towards a critical inquiry workforce

ABSTRACT

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers identify a range of supposedly demonstrable capabilities for graduate teachers. Elaborations privilege the realization of Standards through mentoring, and feedback from senior colleagues. As manifestations of the logic of neo-liberalism they operate as audit technologies for pre-service teachers and their learning. In this paper, we argue for the preparation of graduate teachers who can engage in critical inquiry as means for expanding professional learning, developing pedagogical practices and improving student learning. We report on the preparation of 4th year pre-service teachers to undertake critical inquiry into an aspect of pedagogic practice during their final practicum placement. We first address instrumental framings of teacher preparation. A case is then made for critical practitioner inquiry as an alternative. Empirical data is drawn from the ‘practice architectures’ of an Australian teacher education program as these relate to developing pre-service teacher inquiry designs. We present inquiry questions, abstracts and reflections developed by pre-service teachers over a seven-year period in two discipline groupings, Health and Physical Education and Mathematics and Science, as evidence of possibilities for preparing graduates for a critical inquiry workforce. We conclude in arguing that these possibilities are vital in times framed by a narrowing technical and standardized educational environment.     

The recontextualisation of ‘quality’ in Australian higher education

In the education policy arena, the notion of ‘quality'as a mechanism for increasing accountability to stakeholders has risen to prominence in the 1990s, as part of the micro‐economic reform agenda of many national governments. This study analyses the way in which policy makers in Australian higher education have recontextualised the notions of quality adopted in other countries to reconstruct a uniquely Australian version. Further, the study analyses how this recontextualisation continues from the ministerial level, through the Higher Education Council (HEC), and then the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (CQAHE), to the site of intended policy effect ‐‐ individual universities. A theoretical framework, in part offered by Stephen Ball's policy trajectory studies, is employed to examine the negotiation, resistance and even transformation of the original ministerial quality policy of 1991. A central contention is that the operation of the subsequent 3‐year cycle of quality reviews between 1993 and 1995 provides an example par excellence of a government strategy of ‘steering at a distance’.     

Learning Motivation Mediates Gene-by-Socioeconomic Status Interaction on Mathematics Achievement in Early Childhood

There is accumulating evidence that genetic influences on achievement are more pronounced among children living in higher socioeconomic status homes, and that these gene-by-environment interactions occur prior to children's entry into formal schooling. We hypothesized that one pathway through which socioeconomic status promotes genetic influences on early achievement is by facilitating the processes by which children select, evoke, and attend to learning experiences that are consistent with genetically influenced individual differences in their motivation to learn. We examined this hypothesis in a nationally representative sample of approximately 650 pairs of four-year old identical and fraternal twins who were administered a measure of math achievement, and rated by their parents on a broad set of items assessing learning motivation. Results indicated a genetic link between learning motivation and math achievement that varied positively with family socioeconomic status: Genetic differences in learning motivation contributed to math achievement more strongly in more advantaged homes. Once this effect of learning motivation was controlled for, gene-by-socioeconomic status interaction on math achievement was reduced from previously significant levels, to nonsignificant levels.     

Individual and Triadic and Group: Supervisee and Supervisor Perceptions of Each Modality

In this consensual qualitative research study, the authors explored supervisors' (n= 11) and their supervisees' (n= 31) perceptions of individual, triadic, and group supervision sessions during practicum. Data from supervisor individual interviews and supervisee focus‐group interviews revealed several themes regarding the advantages and disadvantages of each supervision modality. Findings suggest the relative place of each modality in terms of goals and impact.     

End of the Line?: A Case Study of a Cataloging Department Achieving BIBCO Status

The Cataloging and Metadata Services Department of the Pennsylvania State University Libraries successfully achieved full participation in the Library of Congress’ Monographic Bibliographic Record Cooperative Program of the PCC (BIBCO) in 2010. Reaching this goal means that the catalogers at Penn State are now fully engaged in all of the cooperative cataloging initiatives overseen by the PCC, as well as participating in cooperative quality control efforts for three formats within the OCLC Enhance Program. This article describes the journey toward achieving both BIBCO status and full participation in all cooperative programs and the importance for doing so. It also serves as a means to invite other institutions to take the next steps on their journey toward full participation in cooperative cataloging, or to join us in these important efforts.