Learning science through technological design

In the course of a decade of research on learning in technology‐centered classrooms, my research group has gained considerable understanding of why and how students learn science by designing technology. In this article I briefly review two dimensions in which science and technology share fundamental similarities: (a) the production and transformation of representations and (b∥ the action‐oriented language describing the two domains. Because it is fundamentally problematic to derive what ought to happen in science classrooms from other dimensions, I provide three episodes to illustrate what and how students know and learn science during technological design activities. Episodes and analyses embody the two dimensions previously outlined. Because these episodes are representative of the database established during an extensive research program, I suggest there is sufficient ground for using and investigating science‐through‐technology curricula. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 768–790, 2001     

Interpersonal and relational orientation among pre-service educators: differential effects on attitudes toward inclusion of students with disabilities

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which pre-service educators’ interpersonal characteristics affected their attitudes toward teaching students with disabilities (inclusion), as measured by the FIRO-B and ATIES pre- and post-course. The FIRO-B was administered to assess expressed and wanted aspects of three interpersonal needs: personal inclusion, affection and control. The ATIES was administered to measure attitudes toward classroom inclusion of students with physical, academic, behavioral and social disabilities. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed a main effect for wanted inclusion and an interaction effect for expressed inclusion and expressed affection on attitudes toward classroom inclusion. Ultimately, these findings reveal how unique relational characteristics may influence preparation initiatives and may encourage consideration of how individual factors may mediate teacher training and preparation.     

Counselor Educators' Experiences Preparing Preservice School Counselors: A Phenomenological Study

The authors conducted a phenomenological study to explore the experiences of 32 school counselor educators preparing preservice school counselors. Analysis of data from 3 focus groups revealed 3 themes: breadth versus depth, balancing specialties and professor partiality, and preparation versus practice. These results highlight the need for collaboration across counseling specialties at the preservice level.     

Why Do We Want to Change Teachers’ Beliefs and How Could We Support These Changes? The Case of Conceptions of Learning

The theoretical part of this paper argues for an embedding of the question of stability and change of teachers’ conceptions of learning into the researchers epistemological standpoint. The empirical part illustrates this statement by showing how changes in a teacher's conception of learning could be understood from a constructivist perspective. According to this perspective, conceptions are related to other relational and environmental variables that form a meaningful configuration. Thus, although conceptions of learning appear as relatively stable cognitive structures, they are also related to environmental variables to be managed by the teachers’ educators. This research result determines the discussion of the basic questions addressed in the title of this paper: why do we want to change teachers beliefs and how could we, as teachers’ educators, support these changes.     

Help‐Seeking and Non‐Help‐Seeking Students' Perceptions of Own and Peers' Mental Health Functioning

Help‐seeking (HS) students and non‐help‐seeking (NHS) students were compared on their perceptions of (a) their own level of mental health functioning and (b) the average level of mental health functioning of their (NHS or HS) peers. Results showed that NHS students' perceptions of HS students' self‐ratings were similar to HS students' self‐ratings of functioning but that HS students underestimated the level of functioning of their NHS peers. Implications of the findings for campus outreach and future research are discussed.     

Translating Policy into Practice: the teaching and learning experience

Student diversity has increased within Australian universities. This has changed the teaching and learning needs of students. The implementation of quality was aimed at enhancing the quality of the higher educational product. However, the policy, while providing an accountability framework at the institution level, failed to provide the structural mechanisms needed to achieve quality in the teaching and learning the students receive, that is the sub‐faculty level. Other factors, such as the potential growth of non‐government resources in the form of more international students have perhaps a greater chance of improving the quality of teaching and learning within the faculties, because they provide both the funds and an incentive for more funds as a reward for implementing quality assurance within the teaching and learning function of universities.     

MARKETING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES TO COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS

A major investment in educational television programmes by the federal government led the United States Department of Education to seek ways to extend the audience size for these programmes beyond public television by placing them on commercial broadcast stations in America. This article describes the programmes, the marketing organization and strategies used to promote programming to the commercial marketplace, and the successes achieved in persuading commercial broadcasters to accept educational children's programming, particularly programmes aimed at minority audiences.     

WHAT CONSTITUTES EFFECTIVE RESEARCH? A CASE STUDY

The aim of this study is to elicit from staff members and from postgraduate students their personal constructs of research effectiveness. Based on Kelly's Personal Construct Theory, the repertory grid technique was used to elicit, analyse, discuss, and negotiate individual and group constructs of research with the result of arriving at a greater group consensus and a clearer picture of shared criteria for research effectiveness.     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES IN U.S. RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

The present study aims at assessing faculty attitudes toward institutional competitive strategies in U.S. research universities and at exploring some of the correlates of these attitudes.

A stratified random sample of 40 U.S. research university departments, 10 each in physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education was surveyed by means of a questionnaire.

The major findings of this study suggest that faculty members at research universities express non‐receptive attitudes toward university generic strategies, although, more productive,more satisfied and more committed faculty members are relatively more receptive toward university strategies than less productive, less satisfied and less committed faculty members.

The meaning and the implications of these findings are discussed.