Pedagogical Content Knowledge and the 2003 Science Teacher Preparation Standards for NCATE Accreditation or State Approval

The 2003 National Science Teachers Association Standards for Science Teacher Preparation (NSTA-SSTP) were developed to provide guidelines and expectations for science teacher preparation programs. This article is the fourth in a special JSTE series on accreditation written to assist science teacher educators in meeting the NSTA-SSTP. In this article, the authors discuss pedagogical content knowledge and how this is expressed in the NSTA-SSTP. Included are competencies and examples needed for a science teacher preparation program to document developing pedagogical content knowledge in preservice science teachers.     

Whose curriculum? Critical notes on integration and entitlement

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the way in which current notions of integration and curriculum entitlement may disadvantage pupils with exceptional needs. An illustrative case of a pupil with profound and multiple learning difficulties is discussed along with general issues of entitlement arising, and the implications for that individual. Through an examination of the effects of the criteria for ‘being educated’ that result from the implementation of the National Curriculum in the UK, we question current perceptions of issues such as normalization, age appropriateness and 'integration’. We use a case study of a child with autism to question whether his educational interests are best served by current notions of integrated education. We suggest a broader notion of education that encompasses rather than contrasts with care, and suggest that curriculum entitlement should involve common curricular principles rather than common curricular content and should not deny within‐child factors. We further suggest that ‘integration’ should be reconceptualized as 'inclusion’ and we query the features that make educational needs ‘special’     

Legislation issues

Director of International Organizations at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Rome-La Sapienza, as well as a teacher at the Libera Universita degli Studi Sociali in Rome. Her field of expertise covers public and private international law, the European Union laws, and the subject of human rights. She has devoted a large part of her research to the rights of disabled persons. She has participated in a number of United Nations consultations, as well as for other international governmental agencies, on issues related to the rights of women, children and the disabled.     

Teaching methods: Tradition and innovation

It has always been difficult to distinguish between tradition and innovation in teaching methods, not least because of the absence of clear-cut criteria. Definitions of teaching methods are also loose rather than binding. Nevertheless a trend towards active participation by studients is noticeable and very often taken as marking progressive teaching. Starting from the basic relationship of method and objective, an attempt is made to further relate cognitive activity of students to specific levels of achievement which are considered as teaching objectives. It is suggested, too, that a loose notion of method can for practical purposes be replaced by a more reliable notion of teaching text whether presented orally or given in written form. Then the problem of innovation in teaching methods can be stated a bit more precisely as that of creating a good teaching text. Some suggestions of how this can be achieved are discussed.

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Zusammenfassung Es war immer schwierig, auf dem Gebiet der Lehrmethoden zwischen Tradition und Innovation zu unterscheiden, nicht zuletzt mangels klar umrissener Kriterien. Ebenso fehlen klare Definitionen der Lehrmethoden. Es läßt sich jedoch ein Trend zu aktiver Beteiligung der Lernenden festellen, worin oft ein Merkmal progressiven Lehrens gesehen wird. Von der grundsätzlichen Beziehung von Methode und Ziel ausgehend, wird auf die Verhältnisse zwischen kognitiven Aktivitäten der Studenten und bestimmten Leistungsniveaus als Lehrziele näher eingegangen. Außerdem wird vorgeschlagen, eine zu lockere Auffassung der Methoden aus praktischen Gründen durch einen zuverlässigeren Begriff des Lehrtextes, ob in mündlicher oder in schriftlicher Form unterrichtet, zu ersetzen. Erst dann kann die Frage der Innovationen auf dem Gebiet der Lehrmethoden etwas präziser gestellt werden als die der Erstellung eines guten Lehrtextes. Einige Vorschläge zur Lösung dieses Problems werden erläutert.

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Résumé Il a toujours été difficile de faire une distinction entre tradition et innovation dans les méthodes pédagogiques, surtout à cause de l'absence de critères clairement définis. Les définitions des méthodes d'enseignement sont aussi libres plutôt qu'obligatoires. Néanmoins, la tendance à une participation active des élèves est sensible et elle est très souvent considérée comme la marque d'un enseignement progressiste. En partant de la relation fondamentale qui existe entre la méthode et l'objectif, on s'efforce de rapprocher l'activité cognitive des élèves et les niveaux d'instruction spécifiques qu'on considère comme les objectifs pédagogiques. Par ailleurs, on suggère, pour des raisons pratiques, qu'une vague notion de méthode soit remplacée par celle plus exacte d'enseignement de textes, qu'ils soient présentés oralement ou par écrit. Le problème d'innovation dans les méthodes pédagogiques pourra alors être formulé un peu plus précisement que comme la simple création d'un texte d'enseignement. On examine quelques suggestions relatives à la manière dont cette tâche peut être réaliséc.

     

Every word problem has a solution-The social rationality of mathematical modeling in schools

The focus of this paper is on sense-making and the use of real-world knowledge in mathematical modeling in schools. Arguments are put forward that classroom word problem solving is more—and also less—than the analysis of subject-matter structures. Students easily “solve” stereotyped, even unsolvable, problems without any regard to the constraints of factual reality. Mathematics learning in schools is inseparable not only from the materials employed, but from the macro- and microcultural web of practices within the social context of schooling. It represents, beyond the insightful activity of ideal problem solving, a type of socio-cognitive skill.The two experiments reported replicate and extend a study by Verschaffel, De Corte, and Lasure (1994). In the first experiment, a list of standard problems that could be solved by straightforward use of arithmetic operations, and a parallel list of problems which were problematic with respect to realistic mathematical modeling, were administered to fourth and fifth graders. In the second experiment, a similar list of problematic problems was presented to seventh graders under three socio-contextual conditions varying in the degree to which the pupils were told or signaled that the problems were more difficult to solve than it seemed at first or that they even could be unsolvable. The result of both studies was that most pupils “solved” a significant part of the unsolvable problems without evincing “realistic reactions”. This overall finding is discussed with respect to three issues:

• 1. 

  (i) the quality of word problems employed in mathematics education,

• 2. 

  (ii) the culture of teaching and learning, and

• 3. 

  (iii) the more general issue of social rationality in school mathematics problem solving.