Design‐based Research: Case of a teaching sequence on mechanics

Design‐based research, and particularly its theoretical status, is a subject of debate in the science education community. In the first part of this paper, a theoretical framework drawn up to develop design‐based research will be presented. This framework is mainly based on epistemological analysis of physics modelling, learning and teaching hypotheses. It includes grand theories, a specific theory that following Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, and Schauble is a “humble theory” in the sense that it does “real work”, and tools for design. In the second part, we will show how this specific theory and its tools led designers to develop teaching resources in the case of a teaching sequence on mechanics (Grade 10). We will explain how the components of the specific theory and tools guide the design at different levels; the conceptual structure of the teaching sequence, the chronology of the activities, the various choices of the type of activity and their wording. This presentation makes the bases of designing teaching resources explicit and therefore allows for scientific debate.     

Old Against New,or a Coming of Age? Broadcasting in an Era of Electronic Media

“Broadcasting” is often cast as an outdated term—we are constantly told that we are in the midst of a digital/social media revolution that will make the unidirectional, mass communication model obsolete. In response, we argue that to consider the continued relevance of terms like “broadcasting” in an era of electronic media is to neither hastily disregard the legacy of these terms, nor cling to them too rigidly. In this special issue of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media written and edited by graduate students, we begin a new thread in the longstanding conversation about what it means for media to be “old” and “new.” While this distinction is not one we should take for granted, the articles in this issue all show how we can strategically approach the intricate intersections and interconnections of different media, old and new. As such, this issue collectively calls our attention not to the familiar trope of “old against new,” but rather to the tensions that arise around a “coming of age.” Presenting a wide range of international scholarship from graduate students across many different disciplinary backgrounds, topical literatures, methodological approaches, and theoretical frameworks, this special issue represents an emerging approach to what it means to study broadcasting in an era of electronic media.     

Chinese Radical Detection Also Depends on Linguistic Role

This study tests whether the linguistic role of a character in Chinese text affects detection of its constituent radicals. Linguistic role or status of an embedding context (e.g., word) has been shown to affect detection of embedded constituent units (e.g., letters) when reading alphabetic texts. Given significant differences between alphabetic and logographic systems such as English and Chinese, respectively, it is not clear whether the embedding linguistic role has a similar influence on constituent unit detection in Chinese. Findings here reveal that the linguistic role of the embedding context in Chinese contributes significantly to constituent detection. The outcome is consistent with the structural hypothesis, which posits that during reading, the prominence of linguistic units rapidly shifts from items contributing to structure to those that contribute meaning. Of note, the present study shows that this shifting importance of linguistic units applies to logographic as well as alphabetic systems.     

A model for principals' STEM leadership capability

In this paper we develop a model for the capabilities required by principals for effective Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) leadership. The model underpinned a large national cross-sectional research and development project across Australian states in both primary and secondary schools. This model is developed via synthesis of research literature across leadership and STEM education. The model consists of five dimensions of principals' STEM capability: (1) STEM discipline-specific and integrated knowledge and practices; (2) contexts; (3) dispositions; (4) tools; and (5) critical orientation. These dimensions represent distinct, but interrelated, capacities required by principals to establish and maintain positive STEM learning cultures within schools. Elaborations have been provided, in the form of capabilities, for each of these dimensions. The model has the potential for shaping principals' STEM leadership development trajectories and structuring targeted professional learning programmes for principals, teachers and other members of the school community.     

Potential sources of invalidity when using teacher value-added and principal observational estimates: artificial inflation,deflation, and conflation

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Contemporary teacher evaluation policies are built upon multiple-measure systems including, primarily, teacher-level value-added and...     

Review Essay: Five Books About Religion,Young Adults,And Secondary Education

The authors believe that schools are an under-utilized resource for one of the most important dimensions of religious education: meaningful mentoring relationships between teenagers and adults. This article reviews five recent books that are helpful for surveying the rocky, yet fertile, land that is the ground upon which religious education and schools meet. This intersection can be a valuable ecological resource for the respective missions of religious education, youth ministry, and democratic society. The Schools Task Force believes that the educational and institutional nature of schools can be a leading voice in the contemporary challenge to create environments conducive to spiritual growth in souls.     

Beyond Technology Transfer: US State Policies to Harness University Research for Economic Development

This paper examines the recent history of State-level policies in the United States for knowledge-based economic development, and identifies an emerging model based on technology creation. This new model goes beyond traditional investments in technology transfer and prioritizes cutting-edge scientific research in economically relevant fields. As research-intensive universities are indispensable for technology creation, these policies have yielded substantial new investments in university science.     

Cultural Curating and the Practices of Light: Speculating Diffractively

Drawing inspiration from New Materialist philosopher Karen Barad's challenge to read “diffractively” by experimenting with different patterns of relationality, this article sets out a course of speculative inquiry inspired by the contemporary fascination with digital light‐based installations. Taking the UN's designation of 2015 as the “International Year of Light and Light‐based Technologies” as its point of departure, a subset of mediated environments are identified that transcend the distinction between physical and digital; materiality and immateriality; invisibility and presence. Employing new technologies to create deeply sensorial and highly participatory forms of aesthetic engagement, the selected examples offer a compelling indication of the post‐digital aesthetics that arise from the interrelationship of art, design and computation. Its investigation is structured as a montage of two parts: following an introduction that surveys an illustrative sub‐set of contemporary digital light‐based art works drawn from the 2014 INST‐INT conference, the second half of this text will speculate upon the “dynamic‐constructive” relationship between digital media and the form‐making processes associated with “practices of light” (Cubitt 2014 ). The implications of “post‐screen media” for curatorial practice is explored in relation to the mediating function played by modes of exhibition and other program architectures.