‘Educating rita’: Is an academic science course for prospective infant and primary teachers appropriate

Conclusion Our decision to choose the Open University S101 Science: A Foundation Course represents a direct attempt on our part to provide a background in science for our prospective infant and primary teachers. Our objective that this course achieve parity with first year Faculty of Science courses may appear to be an unattainable goal, given the methodological problems that have to be faced for such a general purpose course. It would certainly not be feasible for a lecture staff of four persons were it not for the printed readers, texts, assignments, examinations, and audio-visual software purchased, with approval, from the Open University in the United Kingdom. Our pilot study in 1983 gave us some encouragement and, most interestingly, 10 out of the 17 students continued with Science study into Year 2 in 1984, thus committing them to the major study in science in Years 3 and 4. Given that three students failed, 10 out of 14 is a far higher retention rate than anything we have experienced previously. Clearly, the evaluation of our efforts to influence the teaching of science in Tasmanian primary schools must wait, but these evaluative studies should make a contribution to the research data on curriculum issues in Australia. This course could play an important in-service function for present primary teachers. We are hopeful that such a content-based approach to science teacher education may help to convince teachers to take the extensive range of available curriculum materials seriously.     

An exploratory quantitative case study of critical thinking development through adult distance learning

Educational technology research and development - Critical thinking is a metacognitive process that, through purposeful, self-regulatory reflective judgment; skills of analysis, evaluation and...     

Inside the politicized classroom: A student''s account of a seminar on Indian treaty rights

In Summary The Indian treaty rights seminar faculty taught me almost nothing about the subject for which they had ostensibly convened the seminar. The did not even define their terms. That is, we students were never instructed as to what an Indiantreaty is, nor were we shown how the courts extrapolated the controversial new Indian rights from certain treaty stipulations. What they did teach is that undemonstrable assertions, at least when they are grounded in correct politics, constitute legitimate support for scholarly conclusions. On the other hand, solid facts that undermine correct politics can be dismissed by “view[ing them] within the context of a larger view.” Furthermore, the faculty, who were supposedly dedicated to diversity, demonstrated in word and deed that people whose experiences and perspectives do not support political orthodoxy should be ridiculed and despised or at least ignored. To what degree the other students in the seminar accepted the faculty's ideologically motivated behavior as valid scholarly praxis, I do not know. I suspect that several of them have accepted it. But such a mockery of liberal education ought to be of concern to academics even if, as was true in my case, the politically correct classroom serves only to demoralize. Mona Walsh Holland completed her undergraduate work while raising a family and is now in the Notre Dame Law School     

Accessing mainstream: examining the struggle for parents of children who have learning difficulties

In the past decade Ireland has witnessed substantial changes in policy and provision for children with general learning difficulties as government policies and legislation increasingly underpin the move towards more inclusive provision. Despite this series of policy initiatives parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning difficulties can encounter serious obstacles in gaining access to mainstream education for their children.
This research project was a study of the experiences of a small sample of parents of children who experience Down syndrome and general learning difficulties in relation to their efforts to access appropriate education and education supports for their child in the mainstream school setting. These parents had to invest extraordinary levels of time, energy, and resources in their struggle to get these children into mainstream school and to support their progress there. At local school level these parents and children had positive experiences, but life has taught them that society offers acceptance as a favour, so they cannot confidently expect acceptance by schools and teachers as a right.     

Perceptual,thematic and taxonomic relations in children’s mental representations: Responses to triads

Recent research into children’s conceptual representation-much of it based on the so-called ‘triads’ task-has created a number of issues such as the age at which children become capable of representation at the superordinate level; the relative prominence of taxonomic, perceptual or thematic relations as the basis of representation; and the range of categories to which these different representations apply at different ages. In the study reported in this paper we presented children of three different ages with three types of triads designed to assess children’s sensitivity to these different relations separately across ten common superordinate categories. The approach which allowed us to track preferences for perceptual, thematic and taxonomic relations simultaneously across the three age groups showed an increase in sensitivity to both thematic and taxonomic relations with age. We conclude by suggesting that these relations are part of a common representation based on patterns of covariation within (static taxonomic relations) and across (event relations) time.     

Motivation and Attribution at Secondary School: the role of gender

A total of 1068 secondary school pupils completed a questionnaire concerned with enjoyment of school, enjoyment of subjects and what they attributed academic success to. Gender differences were shown in the overall enjoyment of school (girls expressing greater enjoyment). Girls also reported liking friends, teachers, outings and lessons more than boys, while boys reported liking sports and school clubs more. Enjoyment of school subjects reflected traditional sex stereotyping: girls reported more liking than did boys for English, French, German, history, drama, music and home economics while boys reported more liking for science. craft and design technology, physical education and information technology. Some gender differences were shown in rating factors contributing to academic success (girls rating hard work and teachers’ liking for you as more important than boys, and boys rating cleverness, talent and luck as more important than girls) but attributions with respect to academic success varied more with age than with gender.     

Conversations around the Large Table: Building Community in a Portuguese Public Kindergarten

This article analyzes how one teacher, Ana, builds community in the daily life of her classroom in Figueirinha, a Portuguese public kindergarten. It begins by briefly critiquing the dominant research discourse in early childhood education and arguing that community should be central both to life in early childhood classrooms and to research in those classrooms. Figueirinha, Ana, and the Large Table that is the center of Ana's classroom are introduced. Ana's understanding of community is explored by focusing on six themes: membership, awareness, negotiation, responsibility, ritual, and group memory. Ana's practice is illustrated and analyzed through the use of vignettes. The article concludes with a discussion of Ana's practice and her commitment to the community of the classroom.     

Physics students' understanding of relative speed: A phenomenographic study

It is important that students of physics develop both quantitative and qualitative understanding of physical concepts and principles. Although accuracy and reliability in solving quantitative problems is necessary, a qualitative understanding is required in applying concepts and principles to new problems and in real-life situations. If students are not able to understand what underlies quantitative problem-solving procedures nor interpret the solution in physical terms, it is questionable whether they have developed an adequate understanding of physics. The research reported here is part of a larger phenomenographic study that is concerned with the assessment of physics students' understanding of some basic concepts and principles in kinematics. In this article students' understanding of the concept of relative speed is described. A variety of ways of understanding relative speed and of viewing a problem that dealt with this concept were uncovered. The results are used to suggest ways for teachers to proceed in assisting students to enhance their understanding of this concept. The teaching principles outlined concern both teaching relative speed, in particular, and teaching scientific concepts and principles, more generally.