Small-group discussion in physics: Peer interaction modes in pairs and fours

The importance of group discussion in facilitating learning in science is widely acknowledged. At the same time, it is recognized that in the social context of small groups, peers' discussion processes and their subsequent learning are influenced by factors other than students' conceptual understanding. Focusing on the social processes of knowledge construction in group settings, this article investigates the ways Greek secondary school students interacted in pairs and fours while discussing and attempting to explain simple physical phenomena. The study showed that students progressed significantly more in their physics reasoning after participation in fours than pairs. Moreover, the analysis of discourse in the different groupings suggested that the differences in progress were related to the more constrained modes of interaction of pairs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Not the nine o'clock service: Using children's culture

This paper discusses current thinking and practice about the use of popular culture in the primary school to teach literacy. It attempts to question the methods that attempt to galvanise children's interest in popular texts to teach the current literacy curriculum. It argues that there is an incompatibility between the pleasures and practices of the world of popular culture and the traditional environment and curricula of school. The paper argues that instead of ‘using’ children's culture to teach the literacy curriculum in school, children's vibrant, sophisticated and valuable culture needs to be embedded within it.     

Successful Alternative Middle Schools for Urban Minority Children: A Study of Nativity Schools

Much continues to be written about the failure of U.S. schools to provide a quality education for at-risk urban students. Private Nativity model schools have been instituted in response to the need to provide quality education at the middle school level for such students. As the number of these and other alternative middle schools increases, a thorough examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the model is needed. This study provides such a multimethod examination of 9 such schools. Analyses of students' self-perceptions, perceptions of the quality of the climate at their schools, and academic performance, as well as classroom observations, interviews with teachers, administrators, and students are provided. Results suggest that the success of the Nativity model rests primarily with: (a) a strong and committed teaching staff, (b) an extended school day in which students receive homework assistance and tutoring, (c) small class sizes and student-teacher ratios that afford considerable individual attention from teachers, and (d) a supportive peer environment.     

An Evaluation of the Context Curriculum — Dispelling a Myth

Student surveys were conducted during each of the two semesters of the first year of operation of the Context Curriculum at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. The processes of the evaluation used are related to current ideas on evaluation. The evaluation relied heavily on the development and use of student questionnaires. Later in the year teaching staff and departmental heads were surveyed. Teaching staff were consulted about the questions to be included in the student questionnaire and also about the procedures to be used for analysis of the student responses and distribution of the summaries of responses. Special care was taken to ensure that the summaries for particular classes were revealed only to the class teacher. The evaluation showed that most students and their teachers are positively disposed towards the Context Curriculum. However, students were generally unsure of their department's support of the Context Curriculum. The opinions of teachers of the Context Curriculum and heads of department were more polarised than those of students. Both students and their teachers reported that they believed that other students and staff were unimpressed by the Context Curriculum. The evaluation showed this to be a myth.     

Identifying characteristics of successful tertiary students using path analysis

Academic achievement is the outcome of a complex system of learning and teaching relationships existing within the context of the university. A causal path model was developed and tested using a partial least squares path analysis procedure in order to examine the relationships among factors hypothesised to influence tertiary students’ academic achievement. Of the eight predictor variables included in the model (Approach to Learning motives and strategies; Learning Style; Age; Sex; Locus of Control; Metacognitive Capability; and students’ Self-Rated performance), Metacognitive Capability most clearly identifies successful students. Relationships among the other variables also provide valuable information about student learning outcomes.     

Technology‐rich inquiry science in urban classrooms: What are the barriers to inquiry pedagogy?*

What are the barriers to technology‐rich inquiry pedagogy in urban science classrooms, and what kinds of programs and support structures allow these barriers to be overcome? Research on the pedagogical practices within urban classrooms suggests that as a result of many constraints, many urban teachers' practices emphasize directive, controlling teaching, that is, the “pedagogy of poverty” (Haberman, 1991 ), rather than the facilitation of students' ownership and control over their learning, as advocated in inquiry science. On balance, research programs that advocate standards‐based or inquiry teaching pedagogies demonstrate strong learning outcomes by urban students. This study tracked classroom research on a technology‐rich inquiry weather program with six urban science teachers. The teachers implemented this program in coordination with a district‐wide middle school science reform. Results indicated that despite many challenges in the first year of implementation, students in all 19 classrooms of this program demonstrated significant content and inquiry gains. In addition, case study data comprised of twice‐weekly classroom observations and interviews with the six teachers suggest support structures that were both conducive and challenging to inquiry pedagogy. Our work has extended previous studies on urban science pedagogy and practices as it has begun to articulate what role the technological component plays either in contributing to the challenges we experienced or in helping urban science classrooms to realize inquiry science and other positive learning values. Although these data outline results after only the first year of systemic reform, we suggest that they begin to build evidence for the role of technology‐rich inquiry programs in combating the pedagogy of poverty in urban science classrooms. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 128‐150, 2002     

Learning strategies in an 'ideal' computer-based learning environment

An experiment was conducted with 30 postgraduate students to discover how they might go about learning from an 'ideal' computer-based environment. A system was created which preserved the appearance of a computer-based interaction, yet which freed itself from the constraints of current technology. The students, although not aware of this at the time, were in fact interacting with two human experts, backed up with appropriate documentation and computer files, via a computer screen. The results suggest a number of different learning strategies linked to relatively successful and less successful learning. Implications for the design of computer-based learning materials are discussed.     

Assessing young children's social concept development

A number of questions regarding the nature of social concept development in young children were investigated in this study. In an earlier study, a social concept picture-sorting task was developed to obtain normative data on young children's social concept development. For this replication study, a larger more heterogeneous sample was used consisting of 64 kindergarten and 65 first grade public school students from lower to upper middle-class socioeconomic levels. Profile analysis was used to compare grades, sex, and racial groups. All three variables had a significant impact on performance. Significant differences in difficulty were found among the nine concepts measured. Three of the most difficult concepts (family-not family, those who protect us, and past-present) are commonly included in early childhood curriculum. These results suggest that the level of concept development needs to be considered in planning social studies curriculum and instruction for young children.     

Principles and pragmatism in private higher education: examples from Britain and Germany

The origins, ethos, academic organisation and funding basis of the first private universities in Germany and Britain are described and compared. The role of these universities within their respective national systems is discussed, and the paper concludes with general comments about the value of nonstate institutions of higher education.