Learning in Equity-Oriented Scale-Making Projects

This article examines how new forms of learning and expertise are made to become consequential in changing communities of practice. We build on notions of scale making to understand how particular relations between practices, technologies, and people become meaningful across spatial and temporal trajectories of social action. A key assumption of our perspective is that the scale relations that give meaning to our actions are not natural but are contested in social, cultural, and political projects. Studying these contentious activities can help us understand the nature of changing participation in dynamic and historically developed practices. Using case materials from 3 groups engaged in the local food justice movement in the western United States, we illustrate their engagement in equity-oriented scale making. Defining features of this work included identifying leverage points within inequitable systems; developing strategies for remediating scale relations to include the perspectives of historically marginalized groups; and coordinating trajectories of practice across settings, activities, and time so that these interventions became increasingly consequential. We conclude with a discussion of the significance of equity-oriented scale making as a lens for organizing design efforts and for studying their implications for nondominant communities.     

The Vegetative State and the Science of Consciousness

Consciousness in experimental subjects is typically inferred from reports and other forms of voluntary behaviour. A wealth of everyday experience confirms that healthy subjects do not ordinarily behave in these ways unless they are conscious. Investigation of consciousness in vegetative state patients has been based on the search for neural evidence that such broad functional capacities are preserved in some vegetative state patients. We call this the standard approach. To date, the results of the standard approach have suggested that some vegetative state patients might indeed be conscious, although they fall short of being demonstrative. The fact that some vegetative state patients show evidence of consciousness according to the standard approach is remarkable, for the standard approach to consciousness is rather conservative, and leaves open the pressing question of how to ascertain whether patients who fail such tests are conscious or not. We argue for a cluster-based 'natural kind' methodology that is adequate to that task, both as a replacement for the approach that currently informs research into the presence or absence of consciousness in vegetative state patients and as a methodology for the science of consciousness more generally.     

Exploring the use of virtual reality by pre-service elementary teachers for teaching science in the elementary classroom

Abstract

This research was conducted on two groups of pre-service elementary teachers (PSETs) (N?=?38) in a pre/post within-subjects design. Participants were asked to critique, create, and evaluate the use of virtual reality (VR) classroom applications during a three-stage intervention. Pre/post questionnaires assessed the change in attitudes toward using VR and technology when teaching. Participants felt significantly more ready to teach science using computer-based technology (t = 7.23, p < .0001) following the intervention. Qualitative analysis of responses showed that PSETs were positive about their VR experience and had come to see VR apps as supplementary educational tools. The majority of the PSET teams successfully created original instructional material using VR, increasing their self-efficacy.     

Australia’s supervising teachers: motivators and challenges to inform professional learning

This paper offers an overview of what motivates and challenges Australian supervising teachers to work with preservice teachers in their classrooms. In the contemporary Australian context of new National Professional Standards for Teachers, a new national curriculum and new standards for Initial Teacher Education programs, what motivates and challenges supervising teachers becomes a focus for professional learning through analysis presented in this paper. Data are reported from a national data set that includes 314 responding supervising teachers who took the Mentoring Perspectives Inventory from 2012–2014. The MPI data are aggregated in this paper to suggest that the wider system of teacher education could benefit from attention at various levels of interest to develop the underlying knowledge base of supervising teachers and our understanding of how they are challenged and motivated in their work with preservice teachers.     

Visual cliff performance in 10 species of muroid rodents

A total of 200 muroid rodents, 20 from each of 10 species from diverse ecological adaptations, were tested for depth perception near the age of weaning. Each animal was given 10 trials in a visual cliff. Seven of the 10 species, Israeli gerbils, California voles, house mice, meadow voles, cactus mice, cotton mice, and deer mice, showed some evidence of depth discrimination. By contrast, white-footed mice, prairie voles, and montane voles showed no evidence of such discriminative ability. Although there was no strong relationship apparent between the usual habitat of the species and their tendency to choose the shallow side in the visual cliff, a relationship was found among ecological factors, open-field behavior, and the latency to make a descent from the centerboard of the visual cliff.     

Educational cosmopolitanism and collaborative inquiry with Chinese and US teachers

ABSTRACT

As the world becomes more interconnected, educators have opportunities to collaborate across cultures. Using the theory of educational cosmopolitanism and the pedagogy of collaborative inquiry, this collective case study explores how Chinese and American teachers perceive the assets and challenges of conducting collaborative inquiry with their students across cultures, and how they collaboratively planned in order to conduct these inquiries. Results demonstrated both assets (i.e. promotion of global citizenship and interpersonal skills) and challenges (i.e. digital access and the need for sustainable external support). Additionally, results on how the teachers collaborated revealed the four dimensions of educational cosmopolitanism (i.e. hospitality, reflexivity, intercultural dialogue, and transactions of perspectives) were in play, although to varying degrees. The research sheds light on how educational cosmopolitanism holds promise as a potential theoretical lens for conducting collaborative inquiry with culturally and geographically diverse teachers and students.     

Exploring Middle School Students’ Understanding of Three Conceptual Models in Genetics

Genetics is the cornerstone of modern biology and a critical aspect of scientific literacy. Research has shown, however, that many high school graduates lack fundamental understandings in genetics necessary to make informed decisions about issues and emerging technologies in this domain, such as genetic screening, genetically modified foods, etc. Genetic literacy entails understanding three interrelated models: a genetic model that describes patterns of genetic inheritance, a meiotic model that describes the process by which genes are segregated into sex cells, and a molecular model that describes the mechanisms that link genotypes to phenotypes within an individual. Currently, much of genetics instruction, especially in terms of the molecular model, occurs at the high school level, and we know little about the ways in which middle school students can reason about these models. Furthermore, we do not know the extent to which carefully designed instruction can help younger students develop coherent and interrelated understandings in genetics. In this paper, we discuss a research study aimed at elucidating middle school students’ abilities to reason about the three genetic models. As part of our research, we designed an eight-week inquiry unit that was implemented in a combined sixth- to eighth-grade science classroom. We describe our instructional design and report results based on an analysis of written assessments, clinical interviews, and artifacts of the unit. Our findings suggest that middle school students are able to successfully reason about all three genetic models.     

A better IDEA: best practice and outcomes‐oriented remedies in public impact litigation for students with disabilities

Class action lawsuits filed in violation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) raise questions for those concerned with improving the education system for students with disabilities. First, do the lawsuits result in changes that can be directly linked to improved student outcomes? Second, do these lawsuits and the ‘consent decrees’ that settle them refer to best practices in educating children with disabilities? To date, no study has examined the remedies ordered as a result of these lawsuits in the disability education context, or proven how different types of remedies can impede or facilitate progress for students with disabilities. Class action lawsuits under IDEA filed in large, urban school districts between 1990 and 2011 and the remedies ordered under the final agreement were reviewed. This review suggests that the lawsuits against large, urban school districts tend to result in remedial activities that focus more on planning, supporting and monitoring than on outcomes or evidence‐based practice.