Constructing a new KS3 curriculum at Brooke Weston CTC: a review and commentary

This paper reviews changes to the key stage 3 curriculum at a leading comprehensive school. The nature and practical concerns of the changes are described. These move beyond a fresh approach to content; they include issues about engaging students actively in learning for the future, planning around the school's distinctive ethos and expertise in ICT, and using curriculum as a vehicle for providing energy for new staff and heads of department to engage in learning leadership. Theoretical models of curriculum are examined to locate thinking at Brooke Weston CTC in a conceptual framework. The paper suggests that futuristic curriculum development resonates with some classical curriculum models that have been ignored over the past two decades of the National Curriculum.     

Developing a School Drawing Policy with Newly Qualified Teachers of Art and Design

This paper describes part of a one–day course run by the authors for Newly Qualified Teachers of art and design (NQTs) planned to develop subject knowledge and assessment expertise. The former was achieved partly through an examination of the roles of drawing in secondary school art and design education. Through review and discussion of their pupils’ drawings, the NQTs developed ideas about the functions and purposes of drawing. These ideas were then refined and some practical work undertaken. The nature of drawing policies for secondary art and design departments was considered. The session concluded with a consideration of ideas that might inform the development of such a drawing policy. Secondly, the authors take up and develop several issues from the NQTs’ ideas and responses. These include reference to participants’ drawing performance and understanding, their judgements about the value of drawing, and to how these may be influenced by factors in art education, including those associated with GCSE and assessment. Finally, reference is made to two distinctive perceptions of drawing in schools and, with reference to the work of Wilson, Hurwitz and Wilson, the authors suggest a strategy and argue for the development of drawing policy and curricula for secondary school art departments. The paper is based on part of a presentation given at the Annual Conference of the NSEAD, York, 2002.     

Latent Class Modeling with A Time-To-Event Distal Outcome: A Comparison of One,Two and Three-Step Approaches

Latent class methods can be used to identify unobserved subgroups which differ in their observed data. Researchers are often interested in outcomes for the identified subgroups and in some disciplines time-to-event outcome measures are common, e.g., overall survival in oncology. In this study Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the empirical properties of latent class effect estimates on a time-to-event distal outcome using one, two and three-step approaches. Both standard and inclusive bias-corrected three-step approaches are considered. One-step latent class effect estimates are shown to be superior to the evaluated alternatives. Both the two-step approach and a standard three-step approach, where subjects are partially assigned to latent classes, produced unbiased estimates with nominal confidence interval coverage when latent classes were well separated, but not otherwise.

     

Positive correlation between pre- and postconditioning saccharin intake in taste-aversion learning

Data from 36 groups of rats from a total of 12 taste-aversion (saccharin+lithium chloride) experiments were analyzed for (1) individual differences of absolute saccharin (sacc) intake on the first (conditioning) and second (test) presentations, and (2) the correlation between intakes on the two presentations. Large individual differences and strong positive correlations were found for sacc+LiCl, sacc+NaCl, sacc?LiCl unpaired, and “different context” conditions. In addition to raising doubts about the use of absolute saccharin intake as a measure of taste-aversion learning, these results support the view that an associative (taste-nausea) component is superimposed on a neophobic avoidance of the novel taste stimulus.     

Investigating the learning challenges presented by digital technologies to the College of Education in Kuwait University

There is now widespread recognition that digital technologies, particularly portable hand held devices capable of Internet connection, present opportunities and challenges to the way in which student learning is organized in schools, colleges and institutions of higher education in the 21st Century. Traxler, Journal of the Research Centre for Educational Technology, 6(1), 3–15 (2010) suggests such devices are pervasive and ubiquitous, conspicuous and unobtrusive, noteworthy and taken-for-granted with everyone typically owning one, using one and often having more than one. As a consequence it has been argued that the availability of such devices, controlled mainly by the student and not the teacher, has the potential to change the traditional dynamics and pedagogical patterns of the learning environment (Burden et al. 2012). Education institutions, however, typically remain organized around spatial and temporal considerations such as buildings, timetables, calendars and internal structures which are designed to classify and manage students. In the case study reported here students and faculty teaching staff from the College of Education in the Kuwait University were surveyed in order to assess their access to such technologies, their capability to use them effectively in support of achieving planned learning outcomes and the implications for change that could emanate from such findings.     

A Model of How Different Biology Experts Explain Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms

Constructing explanations is an essential skill for all science learners. The goal of this project was to model the key components of expert explanation of molecular and cellular mechanisms. As such, we asked: What is an appropriate model of the components of explanation used by biology experts to explain molecular and cellular mechanisms? Do explanations made by experts from different biology subdisciplines at a university support the validity of this model? Guided by the modeling framework of R. S. Justi and J. K. Gilbert, the validity of an initial model was tested by asking seven biologists to explain a molecular mechanism of their choice. Data were collected from interviews, artifacts, and drawings, and then subjected to thematic analysis. We found that biologists explained the specific activities and organization of entities of the mechanism. In addition, they contextualized explanations according to their biological and social significance; integrated explanations with methods, instruments, and measurements; and used analogies and narrated stories. The derived methods, analogies, context, and how themes informed the development of our final MACH model of mechanistic explanations. Future research will test the potential of the MACH model as a guiding framework for instruction to enhance the quality of student explanations.     

Worldview in religious education: autobiographical reflections on The Commission on Religious Education in England final report

ABSTRACT

The notion of worldview figures prominently in the recent discourse surrounding Religious Education (RE) in English schools following the publication of the final report of the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) in 2018. This article reflects on the veracity of this initiative. It begins with an autobiographical reflection on the impact of worldview on the author’s development as a scholar. Then, the work of several critics of CoRE is discussed and a more nuanced understanding of worldview is developed as a result. Finally, the pedagogical implications of the shift to worldview are explored by drawing on the personal development approach of Michael Grimmitt and the responsible hermeneutics approach of Anthony Thiselton.     

Dietary supplements

For the athlete training hard, nutritional supplements are often seen as promoting adaptations to training, allowing more consistent and intensive training by promoting recovery between training sessions, reducing interruptions to training because of illness or injury, and enhancing competitive performance. Surveys show that the prevalence of supplement use is widespread among sportsmen and women, but the use of few of these products is supported by a sound research base and some may even be harmful to the athlete. Special sports foods, including energy bars and sports drinks, have a real role to play, and some protein supplements and meal replacements may also be useful in some circumstances. Where there is a demonstrated deficiency of an essential nutrient, an increased intake from food or from supplementation may help, but many athletes ignore the need for caution in supplement use and take supplements in doses that are not necessary or may even be harmful. Some supplements do offer the prospect of improved performance; these include creatine, caffeine, bicarbonate and, perhaps, a very few others. There is no evidence that prohormones such as androstenedione are effective in enhancing muscle mass or strength, and these prohormones may result in negative health consequences, as well as positive drug tests. Contamination of supplements that may cause an athlete to fail a doping test is widespread.