A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration of Intrinsic Problems in Designing Inquiry Activities

A central concern in science education is promoting inquiry activities, and a significant amount of research in science education has addressed what inhibits this goal. However, this research has tended to be focused on implementation issues. Levels of implementation are correlated with extrinsic barriers such as time, resources and teacher knowledge, but the internal structure of inquiry remains unexamined. However, are there also some ways in which inquiry based instruction is intrinsically difficult? That is, given perfect conditions for implementation, is devising inquiry activities a non-trivial matter, and are there patterns to the difficulties in doing so? The aim of this paper is to provide both a theoretical and empirical basis for the intrinsic problems associated with the construction of inquiry activities. We present a theoretical framework that connects contemporary studies of science to the classroom context. We then examine a case study of teacher education students designing inquiry-based instruction to demonstrate empirical evidence of intrinsic problems. Our ultimate goal is to improve our ability as teacher educators to guide science teachers in fulfilling this central task of their work.     

A third use of sociology of scientific knowledge: a lens for studying teacher practice

Over the last two decades, science educators and science education researchers have grown increasingly interested in utilising insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) to inform their work and research. To date, researchers in science education have focused on two applications: results of sociological studies of science have been used to define new areas of content, generally referred to as Nature of Science (NOS). This has included research into students’ understanding of the NOS, teachers’ understanding of the NOS, and inclusion (or exclusion) of NOS themes in curricula. A second vein of inquiry has been investigations that consider the classroom as a microcosm of scientific discourse and inquiry. Such research has included investigations of student‐to‐student and student‐to‐teacher interactions. In this paper, we present a third application for educational research – the investigation of teacher knowledge and practice as sociological phenomena. In addition to supporting scholarly research, we believe it can be a useful tool for illuminating the complexities of teaching that needs to be taken into account by policy makers and practitioners. In this paper, we provide a thematic review of concepts from the sociology of scientific knowledge, and their application to a case of teacher work.     

COGNITIVE STYLE AND THE OLDER LEARNER

Cognitive style is an attempt to understand behavior based on the characteristic modes of perceptual and intellectual functioning. Of the several conceptualizations of cognitive style, field‐dependence‐independence is used to develop categories of teachers and learners. Because older persons tend to have a dependent cognitive style, both theory and research indicate that group‐oriented approaches incorporating discussion, informality, supportiveness, and emphasizing humanistic‐social science content are likely to produce the most effective learning. Although most instruction of older persons is already oriented in this direction, research on cognitive style indicates a theoretical approach to designing more effective teaching and learning for this group.     

Barriers and assets to external funding for African American faculty

Abstract

External funding is required for promotion and tenure in many disciplines, especially at research intensive universities. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and assets to external funding for African American faculty at a research intensive university. A phenomenological approach was used to capture the voice of 16 African American faculty through focus groups and interviews. Data were interpreted through the lens of Critical Race Theory. The three primary themes were: (1) barriers, (2) influence of race, and (3) assets. Barriers included lack of mentors and collaborators; teaching load and lack of protective time; scarcity of funding; and lack of administrative support and infrastructure for getting grants out. Faculty reported several assets for securing funding. These included both personal (e.g. good training, innovation) and external (e.g. collaborations with community members) assets. Recommendations for addressing barriers are provided.     

A Structural Model of Prospective Science Teachers' Nature of Science Views

This study aims to establish a viable structural model of prospective science teachers' nature of science (NOS) views, which could be used as an analytical tool for understanding the complex relationships between prospective teachers' conceptions of NOS and factors possibly affecting their conceptions. In order to construct such a model, likely factors that might influence prospective teachers' NOS views were hypothesized. These included science process skills; attitudes toward science teaching; academic achievement in pedagogical and science courses; and social, religious, economic, political, aesthetic, and theoretical values. The hypothetical model was then developed and modified using structural equation modeling methodology. The final viable model indicates that attitudes toward science teaching, science process skills, academic achievement in pedagogical courses, religious values, and economic values explain NOS views with low predictive power.     

Methodological challenges in researching threshold concepts: a comparative analysis of three projects

Threshold concepts were introduced nearly 10 years ago by Ray Land and Jan Meyer. This work has spawned four international conferences and hundreds of papers. Although the idea has clearly gained traction in higher education, this sub-field does not yet have a fully fledged research methodology or a strong critical discourse about methodology. This paper seeks to begin such a dialogue by analysing three projects carried out by the authors, each focused broadly on identifying and understanding threshold concepts in engineering. Each of the projects used interviews with students and academics, but differed in six main ways that seem to make a difference to the research outcomes. This paper considers the gaps in the research and why they matter, briefly outlines the methods used in each of the three case study projects, and then discusses differences in project goals, researchers’ backgrounds, curricular context, participants’ experiences, negotiated or independent knowledge and degree of comprehensiveness sought in the studies. The implications of these six differences are explored. The authors argue that research in this sub-field of higher education pedagogical research needs to be clearer and more explicit about the methods that are used They conclude that the field would benefit from bringing together researchers who have been developing complementary research methods to compare and contrast these approaches and to develop more rigorous protocols for research on threshold concepts.     

Disrupting the rhetoric of the rings: a critique of olympic idealism in physical education

The Beijing olympics prompted educationalists to develop new curriculum resources. These resources focus on the socio-cultural elements of the games, olympism and olympic values, the moral and ethical aspects of sport and select geographical, historical and social dimensions of traditional and contemporary Chinese culture. Typically produced as glossy brochures, such resources helped to disseminate olympic knowledge. However, analyses and evaluations of these resources are rare. Drawing on Showcase China—Beijing 2008, an online resource published by New Zealand's Ministry of Education and previous olympic education resources published in New Zealand, I encourage scholars to question the comfortable and comforting rhetoric in olympic educational resources that increasingly penetrate physical education curricula. In so doing, I offer an alternative perspective and strategies for teachers to deal with these resources in ways I believe will improve their work and help their students to better understand their worlds.     

Investigation of ABCA1 C69T polymorphism in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction:

Non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus is the most common type of diabetes. Genetic factors, lipid profiles, hypertension are potential risk factors for diabetes mellitus. Adenosine binding cassette transporter proteins 1 (ABCA1) plays a role in cholesterol metabolism, especially high density lipoprotein (HDL-cholesterol). There are multiple mechanisms by which HDL-cholesterol can be atheroprotective, it is clear that the relative activity of ABCA1 plays a major role. We aimed to investigate association of ABCA1 C69T gene polymorphism with lipid levels in Turkish type 2 diabetic patients.

Materials and methods:

After isolation of DNA by ethanol precipitation we determined ABCA1 gene polymorphism by using polimerase chain reaction - restriction fragment lenght polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method in 107 type 2 diabetic patients and 50 healthy controls.

Results:

We have observed that the frequency of TT genotype is significantly higher in healthy controls compared to patients (14% vs. 3%; P = 0.008). Also frequency of T allele was higher in controls than in patients (34% vs. 21%; P = 0.020; OR (95% CI) = 0.52 (0.30–0.88)). There was no association of lipid levels and ABCA1 C69T polymorphism subgroups.

Conclusion:

We have found significantly higher frequency of both T allele and genotype in control group when compared to patients that made us think that T allele may be a protective factor against diabetes mellitus. But, we could not find a relationship between genotypes and lipid concentrations in our two groups. Larger studies will help us to understand the relationship between ABCA1 C69T genotype and lipid parameters in diabetes mellitus.