Different Countries,Same Science Classes: Students’ experiences of school science in their own words

This paper reviews the remarkably similar experiences of school science reported by high school students in Sweden, England, and Australia. It compares student narratives from interpretive studies by Lindahl, by Osborne and Collins, and by Lyons, identifying core themes relating to critical contemporary issues in science education. These themes revolve around the transmissive pedagogy, decontextualized content, and unnecessary difficulty of school science commonly reported by students in the studies. Their collective experiences are used as a framework for examining student conceptions of, and attitudes to, school science more generally, drawing on an extensive range of international literature. The paper argues that the experiences of students in the three studies provide important insights into the widespread declines in interest and enrolments in high school and university science courses.     

ACTIONS TAKEN BY PUBLIC TWO‐YEAR COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS TO COPE WITH AND RESPOND TO ENROLLMENT DECLINE

Due to changing environmental conditions arising in the past ten to fifteen years, many community colleges for the first time in their relatively short history have experienced enrollment decline. The purposes of this study were to determine how community colleges coped with and responded to enrollment decline, and to determine the effectiveness of these actions in reducing, halting, or turning around the decline. The survey revealed that the majority of the respondents coped with enrollment declines by reducing the number of staff/ administrators, and support personnel, reducing the number of part‐time faculty members, and by redesigning the curriculum. Actions taken by administrators included: an increased emphasis on recruiting and retaining students, offering courses at times more convenient to students, and up‐dating equipment needs of vocational‐technical programs. A number of the actions taken by college administrators helped the institutions to cope with and respond to the decline, while others exacerbated the problem leading to further decline.     

Events in learning mathematics: Insights from research in classrooms

In this paper, it is contended that in order to understand individual student's learning in the complexity of the mathematics classroom it is necessary to examine the events that occur before, during, and after learning. To illustrate, the process by which two children each construct new mathematical meanings is examined in this manner. The detailed analyses of each of these events provides insight into the processes by which individual students construct mathematical meanings in classroom settings. The investigation also reveals that the underlying social norms differ from those found in traditional classes, and that this creates different opportunities for learning. It is contended that it is the differences in the norms that have been established in their respective classes that distinguishes between the events in learning for the two children.Preparation of this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation (RED 9254939) and while the author was the Snodgrass Scholar in the School of Education Purdue University. The final draft was completed at the Mathematics Education Research Centre, Oxford University. All opinions are those of the author.     

THE APPLICATION OF REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE TO COURSE EVALUATION — A PILOT PROJECT

This paper reports on a pilot project carried out between September 1989 and June 1990 at a large college of Further and Higher Education. Using Interactive software based on Repertory Grid Techniques, the authors monitored the progress of a group of students undertaking theflrst year of the Diploma In Nursing (University of London). The primary focus was on how the students were reacting to the course as a whole and to Illuminate Individual difficulties and concerns, which could then be fed back to the course team. It was hoped that the complete process would provide a unique picture of how individual perceptions and responses changed throughout the year.

The authors explain how the software was used, the data analysed, and how the feedback to students and tutors was managed. The prime purpose of the activity was to gain insights into how the technique could be most effectively used across a wide range of courses within the college and to determine whether it was feasible for students to use each other for reflective analysis and discussion of grids. Such an approach should provide useful Information both to course providers and evaluators.     

Antenatal prediction of mother-infant difficulties

A prospective study of 143 "low risk" pregnant women expecting their first baby was conducted in Newcastle, Australia. The study was designed to examine the contribution of a woman's perception of her own childhood experiences, her trait anxiety level, socioeconomic status, and social support network to difficulties in her relationship with her baby during the baby's first year. The women were initially interviewed during pregnancy and followed up 3 and 12 months postpartum. Follow-up measures included the Dimensions of Perinatal Adjustment, the Neonatal Perception Inventory, the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and information from hospital records, family doctors, and baby health centre sisters. Women who perceived their social network as less supportive during pregnancy were likely to see their one-year-old babies (p less than .05) as more difficult. The other antenatal measures were not significantly predictive of outcome.     

Middle years teacher education: New programs and research directions

Teacher education programs focussing on the development of specialist teachers for ‘the middle years’ have proliferated in Australian universities in recent years. This paper provides some insights into middle years’ teacher education programs at the University of Queensland, Edith Cowan and Flinders Universities with regard to their: philosophical underpinnings; specific educational context; scope and nature of the program. In addition, some of the research directions and efficacy strategies utilised in conjunction with the programs will be shared, along with some early findings from a longitudinal study in one of the programs. We propose that the pattern of programmatic growth heralds a new time for teacher education, and we speculate about the production of new kinds of teacher identities as graduates take their place in the profession.