Supporting Teachers on Science‐focused School Trips: Towards an integrated framework of theory and practice

Although science centres and museums are important educational resources, school trips to these places are not often conducted in a manner that could maximise learning. In addressing this issue, a Framework for Museum Practice (FMP) is proposed, derived from the perspectives of Cultural Historical Activity Theory, theories of intrinsic motivation, and research into conceptual learning. It is hypothesised that this theoretically derived framework, if implemented by museum educators, can potentially lead to the creation of resources for teachers that would enable them to make better use of the learning opportunities afforded by school trips, and to maximise the impact on pupil learning, including their affective experience. This paper also describes how the framework was used to guide the development of resources to be used in conjunction with a science museum trip. The resources were tested by two primary school teachers and their classes, and the data were analysed for evidence of teacher and student behaviour consistent with the design principles in the FMP. Findings lend some empirical support for the FMP and suggest that it may offer a guide for the development of museum‐provided resources, which would have the potential to improve the utilisation by teachers of informal science institutions and, consequently, their impact on pupil learning.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Educators have invested considerable effort in developing environmental education programs that address students' knowledge, attitudes, and action competence regarding environmental issues. The authors explore the effectiveness of such programs in terms of both student learning outcomes and the intergenerational influence that results when students discuss their learning experiences with their parents and other community members. Six environmental education programs involving 284 students in Queensland schools, from Grades 5-12, were investigated. Students and their parents were surveyed and interviewed regarding their perceptions about the program, the program's influence on their environmental learning, and the extent and nature of discussions that the program stimulated between students and their parents. The authors draw conclusions about key features that should be incorporated into environmental education programs to encourage and empower students to bring about environmental change in their homes and communities.     

Are Environmental Professors Unbalanced? Evidence From the Field

Most outcomes assessment in higher education has focused on content knowledge or skills development; however, attitudinal change is also a legitimate focus of assessment. We use the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) to test whether courses designed to meet the same university environmental literacy requirement changed student environmental attitudes, and whether these changes resulted from instructor and/or course-content effects. We found student environmental attitudes did change significantly but in different directions depending upon who taught the course. The ability to measure such changes adds to the discussion in the environmental education community on the desired nature of attitudinal change and of the responsibilities of higher education instructors.     

Editor's page, 2001–2003

On August 8, 1974, having been toppled from power by the Watergate scandal, Richard M. Nixon became the first President to resign his office before completing his term. In his resignation speech, Mr. Nixon attempted to vindicate himself before the American people. Analysis of Mr. Nixon's address reveals that his strategies of denial of intent and transcendence to a larger context were largely unsuccessful in securing closure with his audience.     

Evidence for the Validity of a Social Connectedness Scale: Connectors Amass Bridging Social Capital Online and Offline

One of the key characteristics of effective opinion leaders is that they are highly connected; they know many people and have numerous weak-tie relationships. Two studies were conducted that found evidence consistent with construct validity. The first (N = 35 and N = 57) found that connectors knew more people from a randomly selected list of names. A second study, with two surveys, was created (N = 561 and N = 189) such that the connectedness scores of some of the subjects in the first survey could be linked to how many subjects knew them in the second. Results indicated that those with higher connection scores were more likely to be known by others. Moreover, in the second survey, measures of Facebook use and bridging social capital were found to be associated substantially with connector scores.     

Team Experiences for Science and Social Studies Preservice Teachers

Becoming an effective literacy learner requires a bit of slowing down and appreciating the reflective nature of reading and writing. Literature circles support this instructional direction because they provide opportunities for immersing students in discussions that encourage their personal responses. When students feel their personal responses are nurtured and respected, they develop confidence to grow beyond status-quo thinking and to engage in critical perspectives on meaning making. These reflective practices from personal to critical are important ingredients for effective literacy learning.     

The Color of Leadership

On July 1, 2000, I became the first black dean of Education in the almost 100-year existence of the formidable University of Pretoria, South Africa. This essay offers a set of meditations on being a black dean in a white university at the birth of a post-apartheid democracy. There are many sides to this narrative. It is a story of leading in a young democracy and about black leadership in a conservative white environment. It is about the emotions and politics of change. It is about engaging established patterns of certainty and control, and managing the inevitability of loss and change. It is about race, reconciliation, and restitution—all at the same time.     

A cross-cultural comparison of numeracy skills using a written and an interactive arithmetic test

This study applied two arithmetic tests, one written and one one computer-based interactive, to samples of primary school children from two populations, one suburban non-Aboriginal and one rural Aboriginal. The results from the written test were significantly (p?&;lt;?0.001) better for the non-Aboriginal children than for the Aboriginal children. This was not the case with the results from the computer-based interactive test. The study used Rasch-based methodology to reduce the results from the two tests to a common scale, to ascertain whether the Aboriginal children performed better (in relation to the non-Aboriginal children) in the computer-based than in the written test. The study found that this was the case, and concluded that the results from the computer-based test exhibited less cultural bias against the Aboriginal children than the written test.