Understanding the co‐construction of inquiry practices: A case study of a responsive teaching environment

We set out to understand how different instantiations of inquiry emerged in two different years of one elementary teacher's classroom. Longitudinal observations from Mrs. Charles' 5th grade science classroom forced us to carefully and deliberately consider who exactly was responsible for the change in the class activities and norms. We provide empirical evidence to show how a focus on the teacher can easily overlook the complex dynamics of the classroom. The data reveal that students had a substantive and generative role in the class's arrival at the different instantiations of scientific inquiry—the nature and form of inquiry—that were constructed each year. We argue that, in an environment where a teacher carefully attends and responds to student thinking, the nascent resources students have for reasoning about phenomena can affect not only the conceptual ideas that emerge, but also influence what inquiry activities or practices become established as normative and productive over time. Our work with Mrs. Charles illuminates an important methodological concern with research on teacher development as well as the construct of teacher learning progressions; research accounts that focus primarily on the teacher may overlook the classroom norms that are negotiated between teacher and student, and thereby provide an incomplete portrayal of the teacher's activity within one classroom and the teacher's progress across multiple years. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 429–464, 2012     

How teacher and students study ‘all that matters’ in high school chemistry

This study focuses on the relationships between meanings of science constructed in classrooms and sociocultural precepts of the wider society. Research presented is part of a larger study of the negotiation of knowledge and roles in high school science classrooms. The data presented document that what goes on in classrooms reflects and recreates societal attitudes towards work, in general, and teachers’ work, in particular. The teacher in this study reduces his demands for academic work in return for students’ cooperation and as a means of coping with negative aspects of teaching. Students, in turn, are not concerned about the specific subject matter of chemistry. What matters to them are the academic credentials that lead to success in the college and employment arenas. As a result, teacher and students construct school chemistry to be what you‐get‐through‐as‐you‐get‐along. The interdependence of the roles and actions of teachers and students suggests changes in policy and practice.     

Contrast in usage of FCAT‐approved anatomical terminology between members of two anatomy associations in North America

Almost 12 years since the publishing of Terminologia Anatomica (TA) by the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT), there has yet to be a unified adoption of FCAT‐recommended anatomical terms by North American anatomists. A survey was sent to members of the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS) to compare the frequency of FCAT term usage with a previous study involving the American Association of Anatomists (AAA). The HAPS differed from AAA in being composed mostly of biologists (56.5%) who teach anatomy with only 18.3% of respondents having terminal degrees in anatomy. The survey included the same 25 sets of synonymic names for selected gross anatomical structures or related terms used for the AAA survey. Overall results indicate that the FCAT preferred term had the highest frequency of usage in only 40.0% of the survey questions, demonstrating 4% lower compliance than AAA respondents. Compliance with FCAT preferred terms ranged from 92.2% to 1.7% usage. When compared with AAA anatomists, there were reversals in predominant usage between FCAT and non‐FCAT terms for six sets of anatomical structures: HAPS respondents predominantly used non‐FCAT terms for adrenal gland (88.7%), antecubital fossa (57.4%), patellar tendon (65.2%), ligamentum capitis femoris (36.5%), while preferring the FCAT anterior circumflex humeral artery (45.2%) and anterior/posterior preferred over ventral/dorsal (41.7%). Almost 54% of HAPS anatomists were not familiar with the FCAT, nearly 21% higher than the AAA. Anat Sci Educ 3:25–32, 2010. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Schooling and local environmental knowledge: Do they complement or substitute each other?

Schooling and the knowledge acquired at school have been considered both a cause of loss of indigenous knowledge (because it opens pathways to the non-indigenous world and worldviews) and a potential remedy to its demise (if educational curricula is aligned with indigenous realities by giving instruction in local languages and incorporating local knowledge in school content). We test the association between academic and local environmental knowledge using data from a society of forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon who were exposed to a partially contextualized school curriculum. We found that although schooling and academic knowledge bear a negative association with local knowledge the magnitude is low, probably because schooling was partially contextualized. Contextualized learning might help avoid that the provision of universal education comes at the cost of humanity's cultural diversity.     

Cooking the books: what counts as literacy for young children in a public library?

At a time when government funding cuts mean that public libraries face an uncertain future and need to make sure they stay relevant to young users and their families, this paper explores what counts as literacy for young children in a public library in a town in the East Midlands, UK. It is based on a study which adopted an ethnographic approach, drawing on Lefebvre's spatial theory to understand how a library space presents literacy to young children and their carers, and how this then shapes the literacy practices and events that happen in this space. The study shows that dominant discourses are bound up in what the library staff understand to be their role in promoting and supporting young children's literacy, and that, often, they organise the space and literacy events in ways that reflect these discourses. However this paper argues that it is not only the library staff that create space in the library, as carers and their children are sometimes seen to create alternative spaces which challenge and subvert the way the librarians would like the space to be used and understood.     

A physiological and biomechanical comparison of over-ground,treadmill and ergometer wheelchair propulsion

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine which laboratory-based modality provides the most valid physiological and biomechanical representation of over-ground sports wheelchair propulsion. Fifteen able-bodied participants with previous experience of wheelchair propulsion performed a 3-minute exercise trial at three speeds (4, 6 and 8 km ? h^–1) in three testing modalities over separate sessions: (i) over-ground propulsion on a wooden sprung surface; (ii) wheelchair ergometer propulsion; (iii) treadmill propulsion at four different gradients (0%, 0.7%, 1.0% and 1,3%). A 0.7% treadmill gradient was shown to best reflect the oxygen uptake (7.3 to 9.1% coefficient of variation (CV)) and heart rate responses (4.9 to 6.4% CV) of over-ground propulsion at 4 and 6 km ? h^–1. A 1.0% treadmill gradient provided a more valid representation of oxygen uptake during over-ground propulsion at 8 km ? h^–1 (8.6% CV). Physiological demand was significantly underestimated in the 0% gradient and overestimated in the 1.3% gradient and wheelchair ergometer trials compared to over-ground trials (P<0.05). No laboratory-based modality provided a valid representation of the forces applied during OG (≥ 18.4% CV). To conclude, a 0.7% treadmill gradient is recommended to replicate over-ground wheelchair propulsion at lower speeds (4 and 6 km ? h^–1) whereas a 1.0% gradient may be more suitable at 8 km ? h^–1.     

Agencies,educators, communities and wildfire: partnerships to enhance environmental education for youth

We studied seven programs that engage youth from 10 to 18 years old in wildfire risk reduction in their communities in the United States through in-depth interviews to examine the nature and role of community-school partnerships in resource-focused environmental education. While the programs use a variety of strategies, from Scout badge to summer school, they exhibit several common dimensions: they all engage youth in community projects; they all arise from partnerships between resource agencies, community organizations, and educators; they all began when people familiar with both wildfire and youth education saw an opportunity to improve the community and educate youth through action; and all partners are able to contribute to the common program yet retain their individual identity as they meet their own mission-based goals. We use themes and quotes to illustrate these common dimensions for establishing community-school partnerships that could build action competence through environment-based education projects.     

Development of auditory event-related potentials in young children and relations to word-level reading abilities at age 8 years

A relationship between brain responses at birth and later emerging language and reading skills have been shown, but questions remain whether changes in brain responses after birth continue to predict the mastery of language-related skills such as reading development. To determine whether developmental changes in the brain-based perceptual skills are systematically related to differences in word-level reading proficiency at age 8 years, brain event-related potentials (ERPs) to speech and nonspeech stimuli were recorded annually at the ages of 1 through 8 years in a sample of 109 typically developing children. Two measures of word-level reading (one that requires decoding of real words and one of pseudowords) were administered at age 8 years. Growth curve analysis, using the hierarchical linear models, related reading performance (average versus low) to the longitudinal maturation in the ERP waveform peak and latencies. Maturational changes (e.g., slope, acceleration, and cubic growth) in N1 amplitude from ages 1 to 4 were related to proficiency in decoding pseudoword stimuli only, with children who were less proficient in decoding pseudowords evidencing more steeply negative declines in amplitude with age, particularly at the frontal and parietal recording sites in response to both speech and nonspeech stimuli. In contrast, proficiency in decoding real words was related to developmental changes in N2 amplitudes from ages 4 to 8 only at the parietal recording site, and only in response to nonspeech stimuli. The early development of biologically based differences in the perception and processing of auditory information contributes to later group differences in reading proficiencies at school age.     

Influences of Witnessed Affect on Information Processing in Children

Children between the ages of 5 and 10 years watched a videotape of a child having a routine medical exam. Embedded within the scenes were systematic variations of depicted facial affect shown by doctor and child. Measures were taken of autonomic reactions and information-processing errors in response to positive, neutral, and negative affective cues. For 5-6-year-olds, processing errors were greatest in the negative affect condition. Additionally, peak increases in heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL) were demonstrated by 5-6-year-olds in response to negative affect shown by the witnessed child; increases in HR were in turn predictive of processing errors. Older children (9-10 years) showed trends reflecting reduced processing errors in response to witnessed negative affect. It was suggested that younger children respond to salient threat cues with a "defensive" response pattern that is relatively adaptive at younger but not older ages.