Documenting Science Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge Through PaP-eRs

This paper examines science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and ways in which that knowledge might be captured, articulated and portrayed to others. The research from which this paper is drawn has involved interviews with experienced science teachers in an attempt to make the tacit nature of their practice explicit. Initially, case methodology was envisaged as being a way of documenting these teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. However, over time, the form of knowledge and information that we were gathering and attempting to portray extended beyond that which could reasonably be described as being case-based. Hence we have developed an approach to articulation and portrayal based on what we call the CoRe (Content Representation) – which represents the particular content/topic of the science teaching – and PaP-eRs (Pedagogical and Professional experience Repertoire) – which help to illuminate specific aspects of the CoRe and therefore offer insights into pedagogical content knowledge itself. The results of this study offer new ways of conceptualising what pedagogical content knowledge is and how it might be captured, documented and disseminated.     

Trace and long-delay fear conditioning in the developing rat

In two experiments with rats, we examined the developmental emergence of conditioned freezing following trace and short-delay conditioning and also included a long-delay comparison group. In the short-delay and trace groups, a 10-sec conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with shock; for the trace rats, a 10-sec trace interval followed CS termination. The long-delay groups received a 20-sec CS paired with shock, to equate for the longer interstimulus interval (ISI) in the trace group. Trace conditioning emerged later in development than did short-delay conditioning (see Moye & Rudy, 1987). Importantly, long-delay conditioning emerged in parallel with trace conditioning, at a similar time, and with similar strength. These findings suggest a role for the longer ISI, as opposed to the unfilled gap per se, in the late emergence of trace conditioning. The role of the hippocampus in trace conditioning and the possibility that young rats encode the temporal relationship between CSs and unconditioned stimuli are also considered.     

Dynamics of list-server discussion on genetically modified foods

Computer-mediated discussion lists, or list-servers, are popular tools in settings ranging from professional to personal to educational. A discussion list on genetically modified food (GMF) was created in September 2000 as part of the Forum on Genetically Modified Food developed by Science Controversies: Online Partnerships in Education (SCOPE), an educational project that uses computer resources to aid research and learning around unresolved scientific questions. The discussion list "GMF-Science" was actively supported from January 2001 to May 2002. The GMF-Science list welcomed anyone interested in discussing the controversies surrounding GMF. Here, we analyze the dynamics of the discussions and how the GMF-Science list may contribute to learning. Activity on the GMF-Science discussion list reflected some but not all the controversies that were appearing in more traditional publication formats, broached other topics not well represented in the published literature, and tended to leave undiscussed the more technical research developments.     

Gender ratios in high school science departments: The effect of percent female faculty on multiple dimensions of students' science identities

To examine how school characteristics are tied to science and engineering views and aspirations of students who are underrepresented in science and engineering fields, this mixed‐methods study explores relationships between aspects of students' science identities, and the representation of women among high school science teachers. Quantitative analyses tested the hypothesis that percent female faculty would have a positive effect on girls' science interests, and perceptions in particular, given the potentially greater availability of women role models. Findings indicate that percent female science faculty does not have an effect on a range of science measures for both male and female students, including the ways in which they understand scientific practice, their science self‐concept, and their interest in science‐related college majors. As qualitative data demonstrate, this could reflect practical constraints at schools where female faculty are concentrated and narrow perceptions of science teachers and “real” science. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 980–1009, 2007     

Distance education plans: Course planning for online adult learners

Summary There can be an untethered excitement connected with ever-expanding technologies and the vastness of educational opportunities that online learning generates. Yet, these new and exciting opportunities do not diminish the real-life concerns and issues that online professors face. Lack of planning often sets the stage for disastrous educational experiences. Problems with technology, the lack of professor guidance and the inability to build community, facilitate communication or humanize learning can sabotage educational efforts. Minimal or nonexistent evaluation can lead to a recycling of futile educational efforts in future online courses. Yet, you can circumvent these issues with proper planning-with the use of distance education plans     

Supporting Teachers' Professional Learning by Navigating Openings in the Curriculum

Researchers agree that achieving thefundamental changes called for by currentreforms in mathematics education requires newlearning on the part of teachers. Currently,across the United States there exists atremendous variety of teacher-enhancementprojects representing a range of perspectivesand approaches to supporting teachers'learning. This paper presents a comparativeanalysis of three teacher educators using acurriculum designed for use with elementaryteachers in an inquiry-group setting. The aimof the study was to examine the process anddemands of supporting teachers' learning andteachers' efforts to reform their practices. Analyses revealed that the central demand ofsupporting teachers' learning through inquiryinvolved navigating through what we have calledopenings in the curriculum. Theseopenings took the form of unanticipatedquestions, challenges, observations, or actionsby participating teachers that requiredfacilitators to make on-the-spot judgmentsabout how to guide the discourse. Examinationsof the facilitators' processes of navigatingthese openings revealed a set of threeactivities they employed in determining how torespond. Analysis of the activities offacilitators in response to openings furtherilluminates the work involved in supportingteachers' learning and has implications for theskills needed by teacher educators engaged inthis work.     

Economic Deprivation and Early Childhood Development

We consider 3 questions regarding the effects of economic deprivation on child development. First, how are developmental outcomes in childhood affected by poverty and such poverty correlates as single parenthood, ethnicity, and maternal education? Second, what are the developmental consequences of the duration and timing of family economic deprivation? And, third, what is the comparative influence of economic deprivation at the family and neighborhood level? We investigate these issues with longitudinal data from the Infant Health and Development Program. We find that family income and poverty status are powerful correlates of the cognitive development and behavior of children, even after accounting for other differences—in particular family structure and maternal schooling—between low- and high-income families. While the duration of poverty matters, its timing in early childhood does not. Age-5 IQs are found to be higher in neighborhoods with greater concentrations of affluent neighbors, while the prevalence of low-income neighbors appears to increase the incidence of externalizing behavior problems.     

The “Autodidact”, the Pursuit of Subversive Knowledge and the Politics of Change

This paper contrasts two types of “autodidact” located in the UK in different historical periods, which utilised different learning/research technologies to different ends. From the 1920s to the 1960s some working-class activists committed to the Communist Party of Great Britain became “educated” in Marxism (and more) through the processes intrinsic to their politics. This radical acculturation was undertaken outside the universities in consequence of both an absence of access to higher education and because of the relatively enclosed social world of British Communism. The widening of educational opportunities and the decline of political Marxism effectively extinguished this kind of autodidact. New technologies have meant that the 21st century is witnessing individuals and cyber-communities that are creating knowledge-based challenges to professional and institutional power in the face of personal/family “medical” crises. The paper outlines the characteristics of these two categories of autodidact and a new terrain of counter-hegemonic learning.