Teachers’ and Pupils’ Perceptions of Technology and the Implications for Curriculum

The recent explicit inclusion of technology into the science component of the school curriculum in Western Australia necessitates changes in both curriculum materials and the nature of classroom teaching. This paper reports an investigation of the perceptions of technology of senior teachers who are heads of the science department in their schools, and relates these perceptions with those of a sample of 13‐year‐old pupils in this state. The investigation reveals that many teachers have a restricted view of technology which may be interpreted as a view that technology is dependent upon science. Such a view may neglect the historical aspects and societal influences on science and technology. Further, the available evidence indicates that local pupils have a low level of awareness of technology. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for curriculum change and suggests a starting point for achieving a successful balance in the teaching of technology, science and society issues in the classroom.     

Teachers' implementation of gender-inclusive instructional strategies in single-sex and mixed-sex science classrooms

Debate continues over the benefits, or otherwise, of single-sex classes in science and mathematics, particularly for the performance of girls. Previous research and analyses of the circumstances surrounding the implementation of single-sex classes warn that the success of the strategy requires due consideration of the nature of the instructional environment for both boys and girls, together with appropriate support for the teachers involved. This article reports the circumstances under which teachers were able to implement gender-inclusive strategies in single-sex science classes in coeducational high schools and documents some of the difficulties faced. The study was part of the Single-Sex Education Pilot Project (SSEPP) in ten high schools in rural and urban Western Australia. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered during the project from teachers, students and classroom observations. Overall, it was apparent that single-sex grouping created environments in which teachers could implement gender-inclusive science instructional strategies more readily and effectively than in mixed-sex settings. Teachers were able to address some of the apparent shortcomings of the students' previous education (specifically, the poor written and oral communication of boys and the limited experience of girls with 'hands-on' activities and open-ended problem solving). Further, in same-sex classrooms, sexual harassment which inhibited girls' learning was eliminated. The extent to which teachers were successful in implementing gender-inclusive instructional strategies, however, depended upon their prior commitment to the SSEPP as a whole, and upon the support or obstacles encountered from a variety of sources, including parents, the community, students, and non-SSEPP teachers.     

The Tertiary Programming Learning Environment: Is It Equitable?

The computing learning environment has not often been equitable for female students. For example, the number of females enrolled in tertiary computing courses is low compared with males and their retention is poor. In recent years, New Zealand educational institutions have experienced an increased enrolment of new arrivals – students of diverse nationalities, cultures and educational backgrounds. The New Zealand government is encouraging the expansion of education exports, yet little is known about how new-arrival students, studying programming at tertiary institutions, perceive their learning environment and whether they feel comfortable and included. This article reports research which examined how equity is perceived by subgroups based on sex and arrival status. The study used a mixed-method design to investigate first-year tertiary programming students perceptions of their learning environment. Survey results showed that, compared with New Zealand males and new-arrival females, New Zealand females and new-arrival males indicated that they would prefer a more equitable learning environment to the one that they actually experienced. Further, results from student interviews revealed differences amongst the student subgroups, suggesting that there were areas of dissatisfaction not obvious from the survey data.     

Students' perceptions about science: The impact of transition from primary to secondary school

As students move through school, attitudes to school in general, and science in particular, become less positive. This paper reports on a longitudinal study which mapped, from the students' point of view, the transition between primary and secondary school in Western Australia. The study focused on the subject of science, and used both quantitative and qualitative methods. During the transition, there is a considerable change in the organisation of the school, the curriculum and the teacherstudent relationship. Students in this study, especially the girls, were generally disenchanted with the teaching strategies used in their secondary science classrooms, and regretted the loss of the close teacher-student relationship of their primary school years. Their perceptions were that science in secondary school was not what they had expected, and this experience may have long term implications for their subject and career choices.     

Communication about science in a traditional museum: visitors’ and staff’s perceptions

This study investigated visitors’ and staff’s perceptions about the communication of science in a traditional natural history museum. The research examined the science-related outcomes for adult visitors and explored visitors’ and staff’s ideas of science and how it is portrayed at the museum. Data were collected by questionnaire and interview from 84 staff and 102 visitors. Both groups held positive views about science, its importance and the need for everyone to understand it. Comparison of visitors’ pretest and posttest scores on the questionnaire revealed some significant changes, several suggesting a change to views about science that were less “scientific.” Most visitors thought that their ideas about science had not changed as a result of their visit, but they were positive about the museum as a place for learning science. Staff held more “scientific” views about the nature of science than did visitors; they recognized the potential of the museum to educate people about science, but felt it needed to be presented as more relevant and accessible, particularly in terms of science as a cultural practice. Neither staff nor visitors perceived that the museum stimulated visitors to think critically about science. While acknowledging that interpreting complex scientific knowledge into exhibits readily understood by lay visitors and displaying controversy are difficult, these challenges must be addressed if visitors are to be encouraged to think about science and the social, cultural and political contexts which shape it. Léonie J. Rennie is professor of science and technology education and Dean, Graduate Studies at Curtin University of Technology in Australia. Her research interests include adults' and children's learning in science and technology and the communication of science in a range of out-of-school contexts. Currently, she is working on research projects relating to integrated curriculum in science, mathematics and technology, and a statewide program to enhance scientific literacy in the community. Gina F. Williams currently is a stay-at–home mother of two and pursuing a master’s degree in science communication from the Australian National University. At the time of the research, she was working as a Research Associate with Léonie J. Rennie at Curtin University of Technology in Australia. Gina was involved in a number of projects with a focus on the communication of science, in particular research into the learning experiences of adults in free- choice learning environments. With a background in science, Gina became interested in the issues involved in communicating science whilst working as an explainer at a science center. Her research interests include the wider community’s engagement with science in their everyday lives, and the development of community-based science projects.     

Children's choice of drawings to communicate their ideas about technology

This study examines children's choice of drawing to communicate their understanding of the concept “technology”. The study explored whether the children's drawings accurately reflected the depth and range of their understanding of technology in a way that was interpretable by others. Data were collected from 314 primary school children in England and 745 children in Western Australia. Children were invited to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding about technology by responding to a writing/drawing activity and a representative subsample were then interviewed about their responses. About two-thirds of children's responses to the activity included drawings. Children held a wide range of ideas about technology and only rarely was a drawing difficult to interpret. Although overall the drawings reflected the range of children's ideas, sometimes they did not reveal the depth or breadth of an individual child's understanding. Consistent with the ideas represented in the drawings, the interviews found that younger children held simpler ideas about technology, while older children held more complex, and sometimes quite abstract concepts of technology. A notable difference between the two countries was the emphasis on “design and make” and a smaller proportion of no response in the English sample, reflecting the greater length of time technology education has been implemented in England compared to Western Australia.     

Science Teaching and Learning in Australian Schools: Results of a National Study

This paper reports on a large scale study that investigated the quality of teaching and learning in science in Australian schools. Its purposes were first, to describe ideal practice in the teaching and learning of school science; second, to describe the nature of teaching and learning of science in Australian schools; and third, to make recommendations to move the actual closer to the ideal.Fundamental to the research was the belief that scientific literacy is a high priority for all citizens, helping them to be interested in, and understand the world around them, to be sceptical and questioning of claims made by others about scientific matters, to be able to identify questions, investigate and draw evidence-based conclusions, and to make informed decisions about the environment and their own health and well-being.Based on national and international reports and research literature, and substantial new data collected from teachers, students and other Australian stakeholders in science education, the ideal picture was described in nine themes relating to the curriculum, teaching and learning strategies, professionalism of teachers and their career path, resources and facilities, and the value of science and science education to the community. The actual picture was one of great variability, but overall, it was bleak. The actual curriculum implemented in most schools differs from the intended curriculum, which is focused on developing scientific literacy and helping students progress towards achieving the stated outcomes. Science in primary schools is generally student-centred and activity-based. When students move to high school, many experience disappointment, because the science they are taught is neither relevant nor engaging and does not connect with their interests and experiences. Disenchantment with science is reflected in the decline in science subjects taken by students in upper secondary school. Many science teachers feel undervalued, under-resourced and overloaded with non-teaching duties.The recommendations developed to improve the status and quality of science education were underlain by five fundamental premises: the purpose of science education is to develop scientific literacy, the focus for change is closing the gap between the actual and ideal, teachers are the key to change, change takes time and resources, and collaboration is essential for quality science education. Preliminary recommendations were prepared and scrutinised by members of a government-appointed Steering Committee for the project, critical friends, and teacher focus groups. Recommendations concerning awareness, teachers, resources, assessment, and national collaboration were developed incorporating feedback from the process described, each including a range of suggested actions for implementation that were feasible in the Australian context. If Commonwealth and State governments choose to act on these recommendations, the gap between the actual picture of science teaching and learning in Australia and the ideal will be significantly reduced.     

Automating the Construction of Internet Portals with Machine Learning

Domain-specific internet portals are growing in popularity because they gather content from the Web and organize it for easy access, retrieval and search. For example, www.campsearch.com allows complex queries by age, location, cost and specialty over summer camps. This functionality is not possible with general, Web-wide search engines. Unfortunately these portals are difficult and time-consuming to maintain. This paper advocates the use of machine learning techniques to greatly automate the creation and maintenance of domain-specific Internet portals. We describe new research in reinforcement learning, information extraction and text classification that enables efficient spidering, the identification of informative text segments, and the population of topic hierarchies. Using these techniques, we have built a demonstration system: a portal for computer science research papers. It already contains over 50,000 papers and is publicly available at www.cora.justresearch.com. These techniques are widely applicable to portal creation in other domains.