A Cross-National Study of Secondary Science Classroom Environments in Australia and Indonesia

This article reports a cross-national study of classroom environments in Australia and Indonesia. A modified version of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire was used simultaneously in these two countries to: 1) crossvalidate the modified WIHIC; 2) investigate differences between countries and sexes in perceptions of classroom environment; and 3) investigate associations between students’ attitudes to science and their perceptions of classroom environment. The sample consisted of 1,161 students (594 students from 18 classes in Indonesia and 567 students from 18 classes in Australia). Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation supported the validity of a revised structure for the WIHIC. Two-way MANOVA revealed some differences between countries and between sexes in students’ perceptions of their classroom environments. Simple correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed generally positive associations between the classroom environment and student attitudes to science in both countries.     

Teacher use of evidence to customize inquiry science instruction

This study investigated how professional development featuring evidence‐based customization of technology‐enhanced curriculum projects can improve inquiry science teaching and student knowledge integration in earth science. Participants included three middle school sixth‐grade teachers and their classes of students (N = 787) for three consecutive years. Teachers used evidence from their student work to revise the curriculum projects and rethink their teaching strategies. Data were collected through teacher interviews, written reflections, classroom observations, curriculum artifacts, and student assessments. Results suggest that the detailed information about the learning activities of students provided by the assessments embedded in the online curriculum motivated curricular and pedagogical customizations that resulted in both teacher and student learning. Customizations initiated by teachers included revisions of embedded questions, additions of hands‐on investigations, and modifications of teaching strategies. Student performance improved across the three cohorts of students with each year of instructional customization. Coupling evidence from student work with revisions of curriculum and instruction has promise for strengthening professional development and improving science learning. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1037–1063, 2010     

Aspects of Fetal Learning and Memory

Ninety-three pregnant women were recruited to assess fetal learning and memory, based on habituation to repeated vibroacoustic stimulation of fetuses of 30–38 weeks gestational age (GA). Each habituation test was repeated 10 min later to estimate the fetal short-term memory. For Groups 30–36, both measurements were replicated in a second session at 38 weeks GA for the assessment of fetal long-term memory. Within the time frame considered, fetal learning appeared GA independent. Furthermore, fetuses were observed to have a short-term (10-min) memory from at least 30 weeks GA onward, which also appeared independent of fetal age. In addition, results indicated that 34-week-old fetuses are able to store information and retrieve it 4 weeks later.     

Emploi des Circuits Fermés de Télévision pour I'Enseignement des Sciences dans les Universités

De prime abord, il faut souligner que le circuit fermé de télévision n'est qu'un des moyens audio-visuels utilisés dans les facultés des sciences. Le nombre et l'employ de ces circuits fermés de télévision restent encore limités, c'est le cinéma qui continue d'être le moyen vedette. Cette situation est directement liée au fait que si l'on considère le rapport: travail/efficacité/prix, le circuit fermé de télévision est le plus cher des moyens audio-visuels. Néamnions la loupe collective ou épiscope électronique, échappe à cette critique.     

The failure of progressive paradigm reversal

The student-centred, progressive paradigm has not had sustained success in changing teacher-centred, formalistic practices in ‘developing’ country classrooms. Does ‘Gestalt-switch’ and paradigm reversal demonstrate that progressive theory has realigned with formalistic reality, or has it remained axiomatic in the research and evaluation literature? This review classifies the literature about progressive reforms into six types of findings from positive to negative. Claims for progressive successes are embedded in widespread validity, reliability, generalisability and relevance limitations. Different approaches to culture exist, while migrating definitions of child- and learner-centred education indicate semantic confusion and cognitive dissonance. Axiomatic assumptions about progressivism continue, while there is little indication of Gestalt-switch or paradigm reversal. Thus, formalism should replace progressivism as the primary frame of reference for classroom change in contexts where it is appropriate. Meanwhile, the progressive paradigm has become a heavily distorted ahistorical cage showing classic symptoms of resistance to intellectual change.     

Modeling Passing Rates on a Computer-Based Medical Licensing Examination: An Application of Survival Data Analysis

The purpose of this article was to model United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 2 passing rates using the Cox Proportional Hazards Model, best known for its application in analyzing clinical trial data. The number of months it took to pass the computer-based Step 2 examination was treated as the dependent variable in the model. Covariates in the model were: (a) medical school location (U.S. and Canadian or other), (b) primary language (English or other), and (c) gender. Preliminary findings indicate that examinees were nearly 2.7 times more likely to experience the event (pass Step 2) if they were U.S. or Canadian trained. Examinees with English as their primary language were 2.1 times more likely to pass Step 2, but gender had little impact. These findings are discussed more fully in light of past research and broader potential applications of survival analysis in educational measurement.     

``Who are the actors in the government of French universities? The paradoxal victory of deliberative leadership.'

Empirical research of the C.S.O. on highereducation in the eighties showed that thecapacity of French universities for collectivedecision was very weak. Since that time, legislators have attempted toreinforce universities autonomy by creatingexecutive boards whose capacity forconstructing university policies is nowindisputable. The analysis focuses on thefollowing issue: what are the consequences ofthe strengthening of central management on thebalance of powers between executive boards,faculties, and democratic elected assemblies?     

Towards a Richer Conception of Vocational Preparation

This paper identifies the key assumptions underpinning current arrangements in vocational education and training (VET) in the UK. These assumptions, and the idea of vocational capability they denote, are rejected in favour of a more coherent conception—a conception centred not on the traditional dichotomy of 'knowing how-knowing that' but on what I refer to as the 'constitutive understandings' from which both practical and theoretical capabilities can be seen to derive. It is argued that an account of vocational capability in these terms suggests a far richer conception of vocational preparation than current arrangements are able to admit.     

Reviews of teacher training and teacher performance in developing countries: Beeby revisited (2)

The effects of teacher training and qualifications on teacher and student performance in developing countries have been matters of considerable interest recently. A forerunner to this debate was a relationship hypothesized by C.E. Beeby between levels of general education and professional training of teachers and passage through stages of educational development. In a recent critique of Beeby's stages, it was argued that the stages concept is theoretically and methodologically unsound; however, the relationship between teachers' training and performance received only cursory attention. This article pursues the issue further through an analysis of recent literature reviews on teacher effectiveness in developing countries. Given the objections to stage analysis, Beeby's hypothesis was recast to predict a positive relationship between teachers' general education and professional training as independent variables and teachers' performance as dependent variable. The two less restrictive and more wide-ranging of the literature reviews provided considerable support for this hypothesis in developing countries, but made clear that the exact nature of the relationship is complex and varies considerably between different educational and cultural contexts. It was noted that considerable attention is needed to operational specification of the hypothesis according to the needs of individual countries. Research should no longer concentrate on whether such a relationship exists, but should seek to establish the particular nature of the relationship in the different contexts.

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Zusammenfassung In letzter Zeit ist viel über die Auswirkungen der Lehrerausbildung und ihrer Qualifikationen auf die Leistungen von Lehrern und Schülern in Entwicklungsländern diskutiert worden. Ein Vorläufer dieser Debatte war eine von C.E. Beeby aufgestellte Hypothese über den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Niveau der Allgemeinbildung und beruflichen Ausbildung von Lehrern und ihrem Durchlaufen von pädagogischen Entwicklungsstufen. In einer neueren Kritik von Beeby's Stufentheorie wurde ausgeführt, daß das Stufenkonzept theoretisch und methodologisch angreifbar sei; auf den Zusammenhang von Lehrerausbildung und -leistung wurde jedoch nicht näher eingegangen. Der vorliegende Artikel geht der Frage weiter nach, indem er neuere Literatur über die Effizienz von Lehrern in Entwicklungsländern analysiert. Angesichts der Einwendungen gegen die Stufenanalyse wird Beeby's Hypothese so abgewandelt, daß sie einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen der Allgemeinbildung und beruflichen Ausbildung von Lehrern als unabhängigen Variablen und ihrer Leistung als abhängiger Variable ergibt. Die beiden weniger einschränkenden und weitreichenderen Literaturstudien liefern beachtliche Unterstützung für diese Hypothese in bezug auf Entwicklungsländer, machen aber deutlich, daß dieser Zusammenhang komplexer Natur ist und in den verschiedenen pädagogischen und kulturellen Kontexten erheblich variiert. Daher muß der operationellen Spezifizierung der Hypothese entsprechend den Bedürfnissen der einzelnen Länder besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet werden. Die Forschung sollte sich nicht länger darauf konzentrieren, ob ein solcher Zusammenhang besteht, sondern vor allem die Eigenart der Beziehung in den verschiedenen Kontexten untersuchen.

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Résumé Les effets de la formation et des qualifications de l'enseignant sur le rendement de l'enseignant et de l'étudiant dans les pays en développement ont été l'objet, récemment, d'un intérêt considérable. Le postulat formulé par Beeby d'une relation entre les niveaux de l'éducation générale et la formation professionnelle des enseignants ainsi que le passage par une série d'étapes de développement éducationnel a été le prélude de ce débat. Une récente critique des étapes de Beeby a argué que son concept était théoriquement et méthodologiquement erroné; cependant la relation entre la formation et la performance des enseignants a retenu quelque peu l'attention. Cet article approfondit la question en analysant les enquêtes récentes sur la performance de l'enseignant dans les pays en développement. Etant donné les objections présentées à l'analyse de l'étape, l'hypothèse de Beeby a été remaniée pour prédire une relation positive entre l'éducation générale des enseignants et la formation professionnelle considérées comme des variables indépendantes et la performance des enseignants vue comme une variable dépendante. Les deux enquêtes les moins restrictives et les plus ouvertes portant sur les écrits inspirés par ce thème ont fortement étayé cette hypothèse dans les pays en développement, mais ont clairement montré par ailleurs que la nature exacte de cette relation est complexe et qu'elle varie considérablement selon les contextes culturels et éducatifs. On a remarqué que la spécification opérationnelle de l'hypothèse en fonction des besoins de chacun des pays requiert une attention extrême. La recherche ne doit plus se consacrer désormais à vérifier l'existence d'une telle relation mais bien s'intéresser à la nature particulière de ce rapport dans les différents contextes.