Where the Action Is: How Drama Contributes to the Art of the Teaching and Learning of English

This paper looks at the way drama works to bring a model of an arts curriculum into reality. He also shows how drama is valuable when discussed as a separate, autonomous subject in the school curriculum as opposed to one subsumed within English. He argues for a view of the arts and gives an example of a sequence of work in an English GCSE class based around Arthur Miller's play View from the Bridge. From this he draws out several strands about the relationship of the drama curriculum to the individual students and teachers, the school, and to culture. He also emphasises the primacy of performance in drama education.     

On the Hypothetico-Deductive Nature of Science—Darwin’s Finches

Allchin (2006) has misinterpreted a classic case of hypothetico-deductive (HD) science in terms of his preferred ‘let’s-gather-some-data-and-see-what-emerges’ view. The misrepresentation concerns the research program of Peter and Rosemary Grant on Darwin’s finches. The present essay argues that the Grants’ research is HD in nature and includes a statement by Peter Grant to that effect.

---

The acquisition of biological knowledge during childhood: Cognitive conflict or tabula rasa?

Clinical interviews were conducted with three elementary school children, who varied in age but not in family or school environment, to determine the extent to which they held naive misconceptions about important biological topics and to determine agewise trends in the development of biological knowledge. Does early biological knowledge acquisition follow a pattern of spontaneous naive theory construction and cognitive conflict or does it follow a pattern of gradual accretion to an initially blank slate? Contrary to findings in the physical sciences, little evidence was found for biological “misconceptions” as knowledge acquisition appeared to more directly follow the gradual accretion hypothesis with the primary source of that knowledge adult authority rather than personal experience. However, “conceptual change teaching” is still advocated due to its ability to provoke students to consider and test alternative conceptions (even if they are not their own) as a means of encouraging the development of important general reasoning patterns utilized in the testing of causal hypotheses.     

Teacher practice in multi user virtual environments: A fourth space

Practicing teaching is an important aspect of teacher education, however, its implementation can be limited due to the constraints and risks related to practicing in actual schools. There is evidence in the literature of Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) being used as spaces for training, especially in fields where the costs associated with making a mistake are high. Less has been written on their use for teachers’ professional development. This paper adds to the literature on teacher preparation and the use of MUVEs for professional development in a unique way by presenting a rationale and theoretical basis for why MUVEs might be a viable, alternative space for a range of teacher practice experiences.