Learning in physics by doing laboratory work: towards a new conceptual framework

Drawing on a study that explores university students’ experiences of doing laboratory work in physics, this article outlines a proposed conceptual framework for extending the exploration of the gendered experience of learning. In this framework situated cognition and post‐structural gender theory are merged together. By drawing on data that aim at exploring the gendered experience of learning in physics in the laboratory setting, a case is made for the proposed conceptual framework to facilitate an analysis of gender as an active process that relates the dynamics of this process to the emerging physicist identities of the students. In other words, this framework allows for an analysis of the gendered learning experiences in a context such as physics education that goes well beyond the usual ‘women‐friendly’ teaching approaches.     

Teacher autonomy and centralised control: The case of textbooks

This paper analyses teachers’ attitudes towards the use of textbooks as a means of understanding what happens in a heavily centralised education system. Whilst the research is based on a particular country, the lessons can be applied to many parts of the globalised education system. The research question here is to find out whether the teachers have freedom in varying their teaching methods or not. The main research method used was semi-structured interviews. The factors that decide this freedom are discussed in detail. Whilst the particular circumstances are peculiar to Jordan, they can be likened to the centralised national curriculum and an authoritative inspection regime in the UK.     

Wall displays-children‘s reactions

Our writers so far have emphasised the concepts, skills and values which can be fostered through topic work. Vivienne Little discusses the role of drama in encouraging historical understanding. She gives some lucid and expertly-documented examples of how children can be helped “to realise that people read about history books were real and had experiences and feelings …” Interestingly, her ideas on the importance of children's “play” and the centrality of narrative (“the essence of history”) extends points raised by Liz Thomson in the Spring issue of 3–13 .     

Characterizing the Experimental Procedure in Science Laboratories: A preliminary step towards students experimental design

Many studies have stressed students’ lack of understanding of experiments in laboratories. Some researchers suggest that if students design all or parts of entire experiment, as part of an inquiry-based approach, it would overcome certain difficulties. It requires that a procedure be written for experimental design. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of a procedure in science laboratories, in an educational context. As a starting point, this paper proposes a model in the form of a hierarchical task diagram that gives the general structure of any procedure. This model allows both the analysis of existing procedures and the design of a new inquiry-based approach. The obtained characteristics are further organized into criteria that can help both teachers and students assess a procedure during and after its writing. These results are obtained through two different sets of data. First, the characteristics of procedures are established by analysing laboratory manuals. This allows the organization and type of information in procedures to be defined. This analysis reveals that students are seldom asked to write a full procedure, but sometimes have to specify tasks within a procedure. Secondly, iterative interviews are undertaken with teachers. This leads to the list of criteria to evaluate the procedure.     

Students’ Ontological Security and Agency in Science Education—An Example from Reasoning about the Use of Gene Technology

This paper reports on a study of how students' reasoning about socioscientific issues is framed by three dynamics: societal structures, agency and how trust and security issues are handled. Examples from gene technology were used as the forum for interviews with 13 Swedish high-school students (year 11, age 17–18). A grid based on modalities from the societal structures described by Giddens was used to structure the analysis. The results illustrate how the participating students used both modalities for ‘Legitimation’ and ‘Domination’ to justify positions that accept or reject new technology. The analysis also showed how norms and knowledge can be used to justify opposing positions in relation to building trust in science and technology, or in democratic decisions expected to favour personal norms. Here, students accepted or rejected the authority of experts based on perceptions of the knowledge base that the authority was seen to be anchored in. Difficulty in discerning between material risks (reduced safety) and immaterial risks (loss of norms) was also found. These outcomes are used to draw attention to the educational challenges associated with students' using knowledge claims (Domination) to support norms (Legitimation) and how this is related to the development of a sense of agency in terms of sharing norms with experts or with laymen.     

Examining the Influence of Increased Knowledge About White-Collar Crime on Attitudes Toward It in the Undergraduate Classroom

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exposure to information about white-collar crime among college students on changes, if any, in their opinion toward it. The research design employed a one-group pretest–posttest design. Undergraduate students enrolled in a college course on white-collar crime answered a survey that measured their level of knowledge about crimes of the powerful and general sentiments toward them both on the first and last day of the semester. With the notable exception of environmental racism, subjects’ knowledge about white-collar crime—which was already high at time 1—did not statistically increase during the course of the semester. Similarly, attitudes toward white-collar crime remained both negative and stable. Correlational analyses between knowledge gains and changes in sentiments revealed that better-informed subjects were generally more likely to consider white-collar crime a serious issue and to recommend tougher sanctions against its perpetrators.     

Adolescent Alienation: its correlates and consequences

This research is into the experience of alienation amongst British adolescents. The study had three major aims: firstly to investigate potential differences across various dimensions of alienation on the basis of gender, ethnicity and religion. Secondly, to establish a relationship between alienation, self‐esteem and selected undesirable school behaviours. Finally, there is an attempt to evaluate the use of alienation scales as a research tool in education. The study involved 254 participants aged between 13 and 15 years attending large, multi‐ethnic comprehensives. The findings show that reported levels of alienation were influenced by religious orientation but only minimally by gender or ethnicity per se. Reported alienation negatively correlated with self‐esteem but was positively associated with truancy, exclusion and disruptive behaviour. The authors conclude that, whilst alienation remains a useful concept for educational research, it is unhelpful to see it as an inevitable consequence of deprivation or membership of certain social groups.     

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE: AN IN‐SERVICE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Assessment of student performance is a crucial professional responsibility of teachers. At the tertiary level in New Zealand there is no pre‐service training requirement and staff are ‘trained’ on the job. In New Zealand polytechnics, the academic staff (tutors) are entitled to 12 weeks induction training, but with the increasing use of internal assessment there is a recognised need for in‐service training and resources.

This paper describes the development and content of an in‐service professional development programme designed to meet the needs of part‐time staff as well as experienced staff. The principal sponsor of the project was an external examination body.