What Teachers of Science Need to Know about Models: An overview

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the nature of models and their uses in the science classroom based on a theoretical review of literature. The ideas that science philosophers and science education researchers have in common about models and modelling are scrutinised according to five subtopics: meanings of a model, purposes of modelling, multiplicity of scientific models, change in scientific models and uses of models in the science classroom. First, a model can be defined as a representation of a target and serves as a ‘bridge’ connecting a theory and a phenomenon. Second, a model plays the roles of describing, explaining and predicting natural phenomena and communicating scientific ideas to others. Third, multiple models can be developed in science because scientists may have different ideas about what a target looks like and how it works and because there are a variety of semiotic resources available for constructing models. Fourth, scientific models are tested both empirically and conceptually and change along with the process of developing scientific knowledge. Fifth, in the science classroom, not only teachers but also students can take advantage of models as they are engaged in diverse modelling activities. The overview presented in this article can be used to educate science teachers and encourage them to utilise scientific models appropriately in their classrooms.     

Individuals,Communities of Practice and the Policy Context: School teachers' learning in their workplace

Current theorising about learning at work comes from a predominantly participatory perspective, emphasising the social and communal dimensions of learning. This paper seeks to develop such a perspective further, devoting particular attention to the interrelationships between individual worker dispositions to learning, community of practice and wider organisational and policy contexts. This is done through the case study examination of the learning of one secondary school teacher, and of the art department of which she was part.     

The influence of reputation information on the assessment of undergraduate student work

The present study employed an experimental design to examine the influence of knowledge of a student’s previous performance and the general quality of their writing style on the assessment of undergraduate student work. Fifteen sport and exercise physiology academics were asked to mark and give feedback on two final year undergraduate student essays. The first student essay that participants marked was a control essay. The second essay was the target essay. Participants read one of three student reputation profiles (positive, negative or neutral) prior to marking this essay. Kruskal–Wallis tests for difference indicated that the marks awarded to each essay did not significantly differ between the three student reputation conditions. Thematic analysis of the target essay also revealed no apparent differences in the way in which feedback was presented across the three student reputation profiles. It was therefore concluded that non-anonymous marking did not induce marker bias in this instance.     

The determinants of academic research commercial performance: Towards an organizational ambidexterity perspective

This paper examined the relationship between organizational ambidexterity and research commercialization in universities. The paper develops two types of organizational ambidexterity: structural ambidexterity and contextual ambidexterity that influence research commercialization. Through a dataset of 474 academic patent inventors in Taiwan, the results revealed structural and contextual ambidexterity factors are patenting-, licensing- and start-up-specific. Despite both types of ambidexterity are complementary in patenting and licensing, contextual ambidexterity outperform structural ambidexterity in fostering university start-up equity participation. To promote academic research commercialization, it is necessary to build up a university as a dual structural organization that allows pursuing research excellence and research commercialization at the same time.     

Building Relationships through Communities of Practice: Museums and Indigenous People

Abstract This paper explores the theory of “communities of practice” and how the ideas contained in it could be applied to museums, by demonstrating how a key stakeholder group, Indigenous people, have been involved with and engaged in the work of the Australian Museum, Sydney, over the past 30 years. It is suggested that the processes museums have developed in building relationships with Indigenous people, particularly at the practitioner level, could form a template for how museums make themselves relevant to broader communities through active engagement with multiple communities of practice.     

Averting a Recruitment Crisis in Educational Psychology Services: An investigation of psychology undergraduate perspectives on the profession

This paper describes a survey of psychology undergraduates' perceptions of educational psychology, and the factors most likely to motivate or deter them from joining the profession. Results suggest that interest in educational psychology as a career option is at its lowest level for thirty years or more. The paper presents evidence that the current recruitment crisis within the profession needs to be addressed at a number of levels, including: the promotion within first degree programmes of improved understanding of educational psychology as a discipline and a profession, and of the links between basic research and its applicability to educational psychology in practice; the further development of the role which educational psychologists (EPs) fulfil, and the accurate dissemination of information about the profession; stream-lining and rationalising post-graduate training routes for psychology graduates, in order to offer a more accessible career route, and maximising its direct relevance in supporting the acquisition of core professional skills; and attenting to pay and conditions within the profession, so that it competes on more equal terms with other career destinations considered by undergraduates.