An analysis of scientific understandings of preservice elementary teacher education students

This article reports an investigation of the intuitive scientific ideas and understandings of 321 preservice elementary teacher education students enrolled in the 2nd year of a 3-year program. The sample completed a physical science concept challenge instrument by responding, in writing, to open-ended questions about the concepts of floating/sinking, the nature of matter, air pressure and its effects, and the balance beam. Subjects' responses and explanations were analyzed, and response categories established. The results reveal that the majority of subjects, with the exception of a high proportion of those who had a successful senior high school background in physics and chemistry, have misunderstandings in these basic concept areas. It is argued that teachers should have a sound conceptual knowledge base in order to implement effective problem-solving strategies in the elementary science classroom. The importance of teaching science in elementary schools is widely acknowledged, therefore, teacher educators must identify and implement more effective strategies for science instruction in preservice teacher education courses that will enable all students to construct scientifically accurate concept knowledge.     

‘Building Schools for the Future’: reflections on a new social architecture

The Labour Government launched the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme (BSF) in February 2003 with the aim of refurbishing or rebuilding all secondary schools in England over a 15‐year period, with an anticipated budget of £45 billion. In this article, we locate BSF in a wider public policy context which has already had important implications in other sectors of public provision. The local improvement finance trusts (LIFTs) initiative within the National Health Service (NHS) is of particular relevance to this discussion both because it reflects contemporary developments within New Public Management and because it also reveals new ways of extending and developing the private finance initiative (PFI) approach to public provision. We shall also consider the purposes and ‘delivery’ mechanisms of BSF and identify some of the key commentaries which have been provided by parliamentary reports and other evaluations. Although still in the early stages of its implementation, the BSF is of such significance for the future shape and form of educational provision that it is important to begin the process of considering possible directions and dimensions for a research agenda which will provide a secure empirical and analytical foundation on which to base discussion.     

School leadership

Multiple contexts interact to position any school on a spectrum from cumulatively advantaged to cumulatively disadvantaged. This article discusses a study of the contextual advantages and disadvantages experienced by primary schools in the south east of England, concentrating especially on schools in the least deprived 5% of schools nationally. The research highlights the central influence of advantaged socioeconomic contexts on day‐to‐day school processes and on the related perspectives and beliefs of head teachers as well as variations on this theme related to other external and internal contextual variables. It illustrates that England’s most socially advantaged primary schools are likely to have much in common including a high level of parent involvement, a strong focus on student learning and progress, considerable ability to raise funds, very good reputations and only a handful of students with serious learning or behavioural problems. They also have in common middle class forms of transience and profiles of special needs. The article concludes that while contextual variations amongst socially advantaged schools do exist and are talked up by head teachers, they usually have an impact that can be managed.     

Towards an integration of the theory of planned behaviour and cognitive behavioural strategies: an example from a school-based injury prevention programme

Adolescent risk-taking behaviour has potentially serious injury consequences and school-based behaviour change programmes provide potential for reducing such harm. A well-designed programme is likely to be theory-based and ecologically valid; however, it is rare that the operationalisation process of theories is described. The aim of this paper is to outline how the theory of planned behaviour and cognitive behavioural therapy informed intervention design in a school setting. Teacher interviews provided insights into strategies that might be implemented within the curriculum and provided detail used to operationalise theory constructs. Benefits and challenges in applying both theories are described with examples from an injury prevention programme, Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth.     

The value of non‐participation in higher education

The paper seeks to link the structural and the institutional to learning outcomes in order to articulate a research agenda capable of evaluating the impact of consumerism on learning and teaching in higher education. Consumerist mechanisms are situated in the context of quasi‐market and new managerial regulatory frameworks and concepts developed by Pierre Bourdieu are drawn on to establish a theoretical model of the uneven impact of consumerism across different types of universities. Empirical studies, conducted in a variety of national settings, are outlined to confirm the plausibility of the model. The possible interactions between first, changes in academic identity, teaching and the curriculum; and secondly, on student identities and their impact on teaching and assessment and their consequent learning outcomes, are outlined. Some important questions about the consequences for the labour market are also raised. The paper hypothesizes that attempts to restructure pedagogical cultures and identities to comply with consumerist frameworks may unintentionally deter innovation, promote passive and instrumental attitudes to learning, threaten academic standards and further entrench academic privilege. The paper concludes by outlining key areas that require investigation in order to address some of the problems posed by consumerism in a mass higher education system.     

Teacher professional development as an effect of policy and practice: a Bourdieuian analysis

This article draws on Bourdieu’s field theory and related concepts of habitus and capitals, to explore policy implementation in relation to a particular case of teacher professional development in Queensland, Australia. This implementation process is described as an effect of the interplay between what is called the policy field and the field of teachers’ work. The policy field demonstrates intra‐field tensions between the federal Quality Teacher Programme (QTP) and a raft of state policies, particularly those associated with the Queensland meta‐policy, Queensland State Education 2010 (QSE2010). To investigate the effects of this complex policy ensemble, the article draws upon the experiences of principals and a group of teachers engaged in professional development across a cluster of six schools in south‐east Queensland, Australia. The specific focus is on the ‘Curriculum Board’, a cross‐school body created by the principals in the participating schools, and its mediated work in policy implementation and teacher learning. The article analyses the effects of the involvement of the principals in the creation of the board, the limiting impact of QTP requirements to involve consultants rather than support for teacher release, and the limited influence of the board on teacher learning and policy implementation in the individual schools. By doing so, the analysis shows the disjunctions between the logics of practice of the policy field and that of teachers’ work, and the ways in which the differing habitus of principals and teachers and teacher members of the board affected teacher learning and policy implementation. It is argued that effective implementation requires learning within and across fields, and more reflexive habitus of policy makers, principals and teachers.     

Some issues arising from an examination of women's experience of university physics

This paper investigates secondary school pupils’ everyday knowledge of the dangers of electricity. It is based on classroom research by a team of teacher‐researchers working with a total of 241 11‐12 and 13‐14 year olds in English comprehensive schools. The initial data were collected by written questionnaires which probed the general meanings pupils had for electricity. When the responses were analyzed, there was a surprisingly high proportion of children (61% of the 11‐12 year olds and 35% of the 13‐14 year olds) who mentioned danger. The pupils were then divided into ‘fearers’ and ‘non‐fearers’, and group interviews were carried out with both in order to explore features of pupil thinking and influences on it. Results of these interviews include pupil quotations around themes such as personal experiences of electric shocks, excitement, the home, socially‐available knowledge and learning about electricity at school. Questions are raised about the possible effect of fear on motivation, participation in practical work and conceptual learning in general; and it is suggested that the pupils’ ideas should be acknowledged and addressed within a supportive classroom environment.