Changes in Korean Science Teachers' Perceptions of Creativity and Science Teaching After Participating in an Overseas Professional Development Program

This study investigated changes in Korean science teachers' perceptions of creativity and science teaching after participating in an overseas professional development program. Participants were 35 secondary science teachers. Data were collected from open-ended questionnaires and interviews. Results indicated that participants showed a growing awareness that creativity can be expressed by every student; creativity can be enhanced; science has a much wider range of activities that foster creativity; and creativity-centered science teaching can be implemented in Korea. The major elements of the professional program that promoted these perceptual changes included hands-on creativity activities, observation of creativity-centered classrooms, and discussion with other teachers. Follow-up study revealed that their perceptual changes have been reflected in their teaching practices.     

Exploring the Roles of Social Presence and Gender Difference in Online Learning

Online learning has become more popular in higher education with its advantages of flexibility and accessibility. However, there have been challenges to students’ learning experience in online learning. One critical challenge would be providing interactions between students and instructors as good or effective as in the face‐to‐face environment. However, providing face‐to‐face interactions in online learning is not feasible because students and instructors are not physically present together. In this study, we introduce and empirically investigate social presence as student learning experience in online learning in which physical presence does not exist. Drawing upon the social presence and online learning literature, we propose a research model to explore how the interactivity of communication tools can drive social presence and student satisfaction in online learning. Furthermore, this study examines gender difference as a moderator in the model. Data were collected from undergraduate students who were taking online business statistics courses where an interactive communication tool was required to use for class communication and collaboration. The results showed that social presence driven by tool interactivity had a significant impact on student satisfaction in online learning. We also found that gender difference moderated the relationship between tool interactivity and social presence in online learning.     

Faculty Members' Intentions to Leave: A National Study on Their Worklife and Satisfaction

Despite the importance of faculty retention, there is little understanding of how demographic variables, professional and institutional worklife issues, and satisfaction interact to explain faculty intentions to leave at a national level. Using the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:1999) database, this study proposes (a) to extend our previous conceptualization and understanding of those issues that comprise the dimensions of faculty worklife, satisfaction, and intentions to leave, (b) to examine relationships between these three dimensions, and (c) to determine the extent to which demographic variables and the quality of worklife have an impact on satisfaction, and faculty members' intentions to leave. Using structural equation modeling, the findings indicate that the perceptions faculty members have of their worklife have a direct and powerful impact on their satisfaction, and subsequently their intentions to leave. That is, a combination of worklife perceptions of faculty members' professional and institutional issues and satisfaction initiates individuals' behavioral intentions and the desire to leave for another position and/or career alternative.     

Security of attachment and preschool friendships

Attachment theory proposes that the quality of the mother-child tie predicts the quality of a child's other close relationships. The purpose of this study was to test whether security of attachment to mother is related to the quality of a preschooler's best friendships. 33 4-year-old and their best friends participated (mean age = 46 months). Attachment Q-set data were collected to score security of mother-child attachment. Security data were used to classify the friend pairs as secure-secure or secure-insecure. Best friend dyads were observed for a 1-hour free-play session. Each pair's behavior was described with the Dyadic Relationships Q-set, a measure designed to describe the behavior of a pair of children. Secure-secure pairs were more harmonious, less controlling, more responsive, and happier than secure-insecure pairs. The results are related to previous work on attachment and social competence.     

Examining Elementary Students’ Development of Oral and Written Argumentation Practices Through Argument-Based Inquiry

Argumentation, and the production of scientific arguments are critical elements of inquiry that are necessary for helping students become scientifically literate through engaging them in constructing and critiquing ideas. This case study employed a mixed methods research design to examine the development in 5th grade students’ practices of oral and written argumentation from one unit to another over 16 weeks utilizing the science writing heuristic approach. Data sources included five rounds of whole-class discussion focused on group presentations of arguments that occurred over eleven class periods; students’ group writings; interviews with six target students and the teacher; and the researcher’s field notes. The results revealed five salient trends in students’ development of oral and written argumentative practices over time: (1) Students came to use more critique components as they participated in more rounds of whole-class discussion focused on group presentations of arguments; (2) by challenging each other’s arguments, students came to focus on the coherence of the argument and the quality of evidence; (3) students came to use evidence to defend, support, and reject arguments; (4) the quality of students’ writing continuously improved over time; and (5) students connected oral argument skills to written argument skills as they had opportunities to revise their writing after debating and developed awareness of the usefulness of critique from peers. Given the development in oral argumentative practices and the quality of written arguments over time, this study indicates that students’ development of oral and written argumentative practices is positively related to each other. This study suggests that argumentative practices should be framed through both a social and epistemic understanding of argument-utilizing talk and writing as vehicles to create norms of these complex practices.     

Developing preservice teachers’ sensitivity and confidence: a service-learning experience at a homeless shelter

ABSTRACT

This article describes how early childhood preservice teachers can develop sensitivity toward and confidence in working with children who are homeless through a service learning project. The 14 weeks intervention provided an opportunity for undergraduate early childhood teacher candidates to gain real-life experience working with among the most vulnerable of all children—those who are homeless. Results of this project suggest that through implementing art integrated literacy activities with children in a homeless shelter, teacher candidates alter their deficit views of homelessness and at the same time develop confidence in their ability to work with homeless children and their families.     

Opening or closing doors for students? Equity and data use in schools

Ensuring equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students is a top priority of many educators and policymakers across the globe. Data use can be an important lever for achieving equity, but how this can occur is not well understood. In this article, we draw upon knowledge gained in a decade of in-depth qualitative research to examine the ways in which data use helps to open or close doors for students. We discuss data use practices that influence equity goals: (1) accountability-driven data use and data use for continuous improvement; (2) using data to confirm assumptions and using data to challenge beliefs, and (3) tracking and flexible grouping to promote student growth. Along each of these dimensions, there are active decision makers, complex processes of data use at play, and a great deal of variation both within and across contexts. Ultimately, educators and policymakers are faced with critical choices regarding data use that can profoundly affect students’ daily educational experiences and trajectories.     

A Case Study of Russification in Two Translations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</Emphasis> by Vladimir Nabokov and Boris Zakhoder

This paper examines the domestication of children literature through the comparative study of two translations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Vladimir Nabokov and Boris Zakhoder. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a reputation for being difficult to translate into foreign languages due to its strong linguistic features of world play and parody embedded in British culture. Nabokov and Zakhoder demonstrate different approaches in translating the book and providing opportunities for Russian children to feel the same emotion and imagination that English children would feel when reading Carroll’s book. While Nabokov attempts to fully translate the meanings of Carroll’s wordplay, the rhyme of poetry and humor, Zakhoder focuses more on direct translation of original text or adding new contents to facilitate better understandings for Russian children. Nabokov exhibits more ideal translation approach of Carroll’s work and Zakhoder represents typical translation approach of Soviet era.     

Maternal responsiveness and child compliance: the role of mood as a mediator

Parpal and Maccoby demonstrated that responsive maternal play increases children's compliance. They suggested that positive mood induction might be one mechanism mediating this effect. Study 1 tested the hypothesis that a responsive maternal play procedure would indeed induce a positive mood. 32 4-year-olds and their mothers participated. Half of the mothers were trained in a responsive play technique prior to a laboratory play session; half of them were not trained. Postplay self-reports of mood indicated that responsive play increased positive mood but did not affect arousal levels. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that experimentally induced positive mood increases compliance in the types of tasks reported in the Parpal and Maccoby's research. 24 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to either a positive or negative mood induction and then tested for response to maternal compliance demands. Children induced into positive moods complied more and complied with shorter latencies than children induced into negative moods. The fact that maternal responsiveness induces a positive mood points to a mechanism that may be significant in both attachment and socialization beyond infancy.     

Unintended knowledge learnt in primary science practical lessons

This study explored the different kinds of unintended learning in primary school practical science lessons. In this study, unintended learning has been defined as student learning that was found to occur that was not included in the teachers learning objectives for that specific lesson. A total of 22 lessons, taught by five teachers in Korean primary schools with 10- to 12-year-old students, were audio-and video recorded. Pre-lesson interviews with the teachers were conducted to ascertain their intended learning objectives. Students were asked to write short memos after the lesson about what they learnt. Post-lesson interviews with students and teachers were undertaken. What emerged was that there were three types of knowledge that students learnt unintentionally: factual knowledge gained by phenomenon-based reasoning, conceptual knowledge gained by relation- or model-based reasoning, and procedural knowledge acquired by practice. Most unintended learning found in this study fell into the factual knowledge and only a few cases of conceptual knowledge were found. Cases of both explicit procedural knowledge and implicit procedural knowledge were found. This study is significant in that it suggests how unintended learning in practical work can be facilitated as an educative opportunity for meaningful learning by exploring what and how students learnt.