Going to action? A literature review on educational proposals in formal Environmental Education

The current state of the planet’s environmental deterioration calls for formal educational contexts to implement effective environmental proposals which nurture action competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the educational proposals in formal contexts that have been published in the two research journals of greatest impact on Environmental Education during the period 2008–2013, and to analyse how they contribute to the development of action competence. Special attention is paid to research (i) based on real participation by students; (ii) promotes reflection on the complexity of environmental issues; (iii) facilitates critical thinking; (iv) encourages autonomous and responsible decision-making and (v) involves communities. Our results show that these approaches can help improve the development of action-focused environmental education and bring to light a series of challenges for future research.     

The Impact of Globalization on Teacher Education: The Philippine Perspective

This qualitative study is an attempt to describe how administrators, teachers and researchers in a select group of teacher education institutions (TEIs) in the capital of the Philippines collectively view globalization. Specifically, concepts of a globalized teacher education, impact of globalization in teacher education, and problems of teacher education in the context of globalization were the delineated factors investigated in this study. A total of 23 respondents comprising 13 university teachers, 6 deans and 4 educational researchers were asked to participate in an audio-taped interview and written responses. Data yielded by the interview were transcribed and categorized based on saliency, meaning and homogeneity. Clearly, this study has disclosed efforts initiated at both pre-service and in-service education levels in response to the challenges of globalization consistent with the collective view of the various sectors. This research segment is part of a research project submitted to the Asia-Pacific Education Policy Research Initiative/KEDI (AP-EPRI/KEDI) and funded by the World Bank/GDN.     

Teachers’ enactments of curriculum: Fidelity to Procedure versus Fidelity to Goal for scientific argumentation

Fidelity of implementation (FOI) has received attention in calls for funding and research; however, there are numerous ways of conceptualising and measuring this construct. We argue that this conceptualisation is important for recent reform efforts focused on science practices. Consequently, we explored FOI in the context of the enactment of a middle-school curriculum focused on one particular science practice, argumentation. We coded videos of five teachers’ enactments of argumentation lessons using two different fidelity coding schemes. First, Fidelity to Procedure targeted teachers’ adherence to the order and types of procedures. Second, Fidelity to Goal examined teachers’ adherence to the overarching argumentation goals. This analysis resulted in case studies that illustrate distinct patterns in the teachers’ curriculum enactments. One case in particular, Ms Newbury, received a low score for Fidelity to Procedure, but a high score for Fidelity to Goal. She altered procedures to provide her students, all of whom were English Language Learners, with different linguistic supports, but maintained the overarching argumentation goals. Consequently, we argue that FOI for goals may better capture whether teachers’ enactments are supporting students in the science practices. Furthermore, the results suggest the importance of educative curriculum including rationales for the curricular goals.     

Discussion of competences at university level: review of the competency profile of social educators / Discusión de competencias en el ámbito universitario: revisión del perfil del educador social

Training in competences helps university students develop in a comprehensive way that is oriented towards working in their chosen profession. The profession focused on in this study is that of social educator. Degree programmes related to this profession are relatively new and their implementation is also open to variation. As a result of this, a review of the competency profile of the profession is considered necessary. The study presented here aims to validate the competences of this profession by means of expert judgement. The panel of experts assesses the relevance and clarity of each element, as well as giving their opinions on them. The contributions provided result in a set of qualitative and quantitative data whose analysis helps to redefine a profile comprising 23 competences distributed across two dimensions: basic competences (14) and professional competences (9).     

Education of deaf students in Spain: legal and educational politics developments

This article examines the legal instruments and educational politics affecting deaf persons' educational rights in Spain. We present a historical view of deaf education in Spain before and after the Congress of Milan (1880) and then introduce educational legislation and practices in recent decades. At present, Spanish legislation is moving toward recognition of sign languages and the suitability of bilingual education for deaf students at all educational levels. This is a consequence of taking into account the low academic achievement of two generations of deaf students educated in a monolingual model. Bilingual projects are now run throughout Spain. We emphasize that efforts must be made in the legal sphere to regulate the way in which professionals who know sign language and Deaf culture-teachers, interpreters, deaf adult models-are incorporated in bilingual deaf schools.     

Useful interactive teaching tool for learning: clickers in higher education†

Many university lecturers are encouraged to implement innovative teaching tools and methodologies such as clickers in order to create an interactive learning environment and improve student learning, but its performance must be evaluated. The aim of this paper is to test empirically the impact of the use of clickers on students' learning processes. The teaching experience applied to the subject of Financial Accounting is specifically described. The total sample size is 77 students from a Business Administration and Economics Degree, taught in English and in Spanish. The analysis, using multivariate techniques, of the questionnaire responses, students' grades and a reflexive experience of the lecturer conclude that learning with clickers is effective. There is a positive relationship between grades and intrinsic motivation through clickers. Consequently, the students' marks are related to its intrinsic motivation, feedback to understanding, students' discussion and its negative aspects but not gender nor age.     

Science identity possibilities: a look into Blackness,masculinities, and economic power relations

This forum paper dialogues with Sheron Mark’s A bit of both science and economics: a non-traditional STEM identity narrative. In her paper, she discusses the development of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) identity by a young African American male during an informal STEM for Social Justice Program. Here, the discussion focuses on Black masculinities, identity formation, and the role of science educators in making STEM fields a welcoming place for young Black men. Drawing from Mark’s data and discussion, this paper is a dialogue between science identity possibilities in the United States and in Brazil when we look at the intersections of race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Using the shared colonial past of both countries a connection is established to address race relations within science education. The main argument in this paper is that racism can no longer be denied and dismissed by the science education community worldwide and that intersectional approaches are needed to face this issue.