Lab Work and Learning in Secondary School Chemistry: The Importance of Teacher and Student Interaction

Laboratory work is considered essential in promoting students’ learning of science and of scientific inquiry. What the students perceive as important to learn from a regular laboratory exercise is probably affected by the teacher’s objectives. We study the extent to which one teacher’s objectives are fulfilled during lab work, and how teacher–student and student–student interactions contribute to developing learning experiences from the laboratory exercise. Do students encounter opportunities to learn in agreement with the teacher’s objectives? This explanatory single case study includes use of a palette of methods, such as pre- and post-interviews, observations and video documentation from an experienced secondary school teacher and her 8th grade (aged 13–14) students’ laboratory work. Our results point to the importance of teacher involvement to help students understand what to look for, how to do it and why. Especially teacher–student interactions during lab work seemed to influence what students perceived as important to learn. In the laboratory exercise in this case, the teacher helped the students to observe and to use their observations in their explanations. The lab work included learning experiences other than those addressed by the teacher, and the teacher’s intentions were partially fulfilled. Not only what the teacher says, but also how the teacher acts is important to help students understand what to learn from a laboratory exercise.     

Mutinous Fiction: Narrative and Illustrative Metalepsis in Three Postmodern Picturebooks

Narrative embedding is a common narrative structural device. Genette (1980, 1988) distinguished among various diegetic levels to explain the discrete narrative levels in embedded narratives and he defined metalepsis as the deliberate disturbing or breaking of narrative boundaries. Metalepsis, described by Malina (2002) as a mutinous narrative device, increases narrative complexity by obscuring or collapsing the boundaries between reality and fiction. She also stated that, “artistic exploitation of metalepsis has run rampant in the postmodern era” (p. 1). This essay focuses on three postmodern picturebooks and discusses how the various metaleptic transgressions in these selections create multifaceted and mutinous texts.     

It’s never too late to remediate: Teaching word recognition to students with reading disabilities in grades 4–7

Twenty children in fourth through seventh grade participated in 16 one-hour individual tutorials over a four-month period. Half of the children received structural analysis and alphabet principle training; half received only alphabetic principle training; all received training in orthographic and phonological skills, practice in oral reading of connected text, and monitoring strategies for comprehension. Results showed that the children improved reliably in reading and related measures. Treatment condition did not predict rate of growth. Only rapid automatic naming of letters predicted response to intervention and only on rate of real word reading. Results of this study indicate that upper elementary and middle school students who have not yet mastered accuracy and automaticity of word recognition should be given explicit instruction in word recognition, especially in the alphabetic principle. The benefits of structural analysis training were evident only in trends for individual students on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) growth analyses. This dissertation research by the first author, and supervised by the second, was supported by Grant No. HD-33812 and Grant No. HD-25858-09 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.     

Do You Want to Know What I Learned? Using Informational Trade Books as Models to Teach Text Structure

Informational text is an important resource for classroom teachers that places unique comprehension demands on young students. Research on teaching expository text structure to young children shows that explicit instruction improves student comprehension. This practical article addresses how to use “well-structured” expository trade book titles to teach text structure. A lesson plan template and an extended example of an explicit lesson on order/sequence are provided.     

Teacher expectations and student literacy engagement and achievement

Notwithstanding the complex and dynamic nature of teaching and learning in schools, over four decades of research findings have consistently revealed a correlation between teacher expectations and student achievement. Focusing on teacher expectations for the narrative structures created by young children, this article features a discussion of data gathered during a multifaceted study with 7‐ and 8‐year‐old students. The overall purpose of the case study research was to explore the development of student understanding of elements of visual art and design and diverse narrative structures in picturebooks. For the culminating activity of the research, the students had opportunities to apply and transform their knowledge of the instructional foci when they composed their own multimodal print texts. Analysis of the students' narrative structures revealed the multiple forms of metalepsis, the purposeful breaking of storyworld/narrative boundaries, evident in their writing and artwork. In addition to a discussion about the socially situated nature of the children's multimodal text‐making, the article includes a consideration of the importance of teacher expectations with respect to student literacy engagement and achievement.     

Equity in college physics student learning: A critical quantitative intersectionality investigation

We investigated the intersectional nature of race/racism and gender/sexism in broad scale inequities in physics student learning using a critical quantitative intersectionality. To provide transparency and create a nuanced picture of learning, we problematized the measurement of equity by using two competing operationalizations of equity: Equity of Individuality and Equality of Learning. These two models led to conflicting conclusions. The analyses used hierarchical linear models to examine student's conceptual learning as measured by gains in scores on research-based assessments administered as pretests and posttests. The data came from the Learning About STEM Student Outcomes' (LASSO) national database and included data from 13,857 students in 187 first-semester college physics courses. Findings showed differences in student gains across gender and race. Large gender differences existed for White and Hispanic students but not for Asian, Black, and Pacific Islander students. The models predicted larger gains for students in collaborative learning than in lecture-based courses. The Equity of Individuality operationalization indicated that collaborative instruction improved equity because all groups learned more with collaborative learning. The Equality of Learning operationalization indicated that collaborative instruction did not improve equity because differences between groups were unaffected. We discuss the implications of these mixed findings and identify areas for future research using critical quantitative perspectives in education research.     

ECVET and ECTS credit equivalency in higher education – A bridge too far?

The implementation within Europe of a credit system for vocational education and training known as ECVET is a European Commission priority. The potential for permeability between the ECVET and European Credit Transfer and accumulation System (ECTS) was foreseen in the Recommendation to establish ECVET in 2009, while the Bruges Communique of 2010 called for the promotion of flexible links between vocational and higher education and increased coherence between ECVET and ECTS. To this end a significant number of EU-funded projects were undertaken to explore compatibility between ECVET and ECTS. This article reviews the findings of these projects and reflects on their success in terms of achieving this policy goal. These bridging projects identified several points of compatibility between the two credit systems and produced valuable tools and frameworks to facilitate such permeability. Achieving credit equivalency between ECVET and ECTS does not appear feasible, rather the evidence points to using a learning outcomes-based equivalency framework. However, this article calls into question the sustainability of these project results with regard to the lack of success in translating these findings into practice and the lack of co-ordinated efforts to implement these findings at a national or pan European level.