The writing on the wall: Classroom context,curriculum implementation,and student learning in integrated,community‐based science projects

In this study we examined curriculum integration in new ways by exploring the link between classroom context, the implementation of community‐based, integrated science projects, and the subsequent student learning. The literature is inconsistent regarding the benefits of an integrated approach to curriculum. The research design was a multiple case study conducted in two classrooms in different schools. We employed a “worldly interpretive framework” that recognizes and embraces the importance of context in framing curriculum practices and outcomes. We found that similar projects in the two classrooms produced distinctly different (and equally valid) outcomes—focused either on bounded discipline‐specific knowledge or, alternatively, on issues and problems that transcended disciplinary boundaries. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 857–880, 2008     

Reading teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and English phonology

We investigated relationships among elementary teachers’ reading-related content knowledge (knowledge of literature and phonology), their philosophical orientation toward reading instruction, their classroom practice, and their students’ learning. Correlations showed little relationship between instructional philosophy and content knowledge, and little relationship between instructional philosophy and classroom practice. However, relationships emerged between content knowledge and instruction, and between kindergarten teachers’ phonological knowledge and their students’ reading achievement. We recommend that the recent focus on teacher’s disciplinary knowledge be broadened to include teachers of beginning reading and that teachers be afforded opportunities to develop the necessary knowledge base to teach reading effectively.     

Democratizing Children's Computation: Learning Computational Science as Aesthetic Experience

In this essay, Amy Voss Farris and Pratim Sengupta argue that a democratic approach to children's computing education in a science class must focus on the aesthetics of children's experience. In Democracy and Education, Dewey links “democracy” with a distinctive understanding of “experience.” For Dewey, the value of educational experiences lies in “the unity or integrity of experience.” In Art as Experience, Dewey presents aesthetic experience as the fundamental form of human experience that undergirds all other forms of experiences and that can bring together multiple forms of experiences, locating this form of experience in the work of artists. Particularly relevant to the focus of this essay, computational literacy, Dewey calls the process through which a person transforms a material into an expressive medium an aesthetic experience. Farris and Sengupta argue that the kind of experience that is appropriate for a democratic education in the context of children's computational science is essentially aesthetic in nature. Given that aesthetics has received relatively little attention in STEM education research, the authors' purpose here is to highlight the power of Deweyan aesthetic experience in making computational thinking available and attractive to all children, including those who are disinterested in computing, and especially those who are likely to be discounted by virtue of location, gender, or race.     

Selectivity bias and the determinants of SAT scores

The determinants of state-wide average SAT scores are estimated for 1982 in a regression analysis which corrects for the proportion of students taking the test. The selectivity correction has a large impact on the estimates of the effects of other variables. Little effect of schooling variables (teachers' salaries, teachers per pupil, other expenditures) is found in the selectivity-adjusted estimates, except that large schools seem to depress SAT scores and private schools enhance scores. State-wide high school graduation standards also do not explain SAT score variation. In contrast, several demographic variables are quite important, including family size, the college-educated fraction of the population, and female-headed households. We can explain some of the SAT score decline in the 1970s with these cross-section estimates, suggesting that the decline over time is not due to changing resources for schooling but, in part, to changing demographics. In particular, a large part of the recent SAT score decline was caused by the large families of the post-war baby boom.     

Understanding Scale: Powers of Ten

The classic film “Powers of Ten” is often employed to catalyze the building of more accurate conceptions of scale, yet its effectiveness is largely unknown. This study examines the impact of the film on students’ concepts of size and scale. Twenty-two middle school students and six science teachers participated. Students completed pre- and post-intervention interviews and a Scale Card Sorting (SCS) task; all students observed the film “Powers of Ten.” Experienced teachers’ views on the efficacy of the film were assessed through a short written survey. Results showed that viewing the film had a positive influence on students’ understandings of powers of ten and scale. Students reported that they had more difficulty with sizes outside of the human scale and found small scales more difficult to conceptualize than large scales. Students’ concepts of relative size as well as their ability to accurately match metric sizes in scientific notation to metric scale increased from pre- to post-viewing of the film. Experienced teachers reported that the film was a highly effective tool. Teachers reported that the design of the film that allowed students to move slowly from the human scale to the large and small scales and then quickly back again was effective in laying the foundation for understanding the different scales. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. 0411656 and 0507151.     

Research summaries for normal birth

In this column, the author summarizes four research studies that further support the benefits of normal birth. The topics of the studies include the optimality of midwifery care for pregnant women at moderate risk; obstetric care practices associated with anal sphincter tears in vaginal births; the effect of acupuncture treatment on women with prelabor rupture of membranes at term; and women's ability to adapt to early labor.     

Interdependence, Garbage Dumping, and Feral Dogs: Exploring Three Lifeworld Resources of Young Children in a Rural School

In this article, we concentrate upon the lifeworld resources that comprise the funds of knowledge for children living in a rural community in the southeastern United States. Through interview conversations with a group of third grade children, we identified three lifeworld resources—interdependence, garbage dumping, and feral dogs—that rural teachers might draw on to generate curriculum that is connected to the community in which they teach. Through such connections rural teachers may increase the likelihood that they will remain teaching in rural schools.

Hospital-based multidisciplinary teams can prevent unnecessary child abuse reports and out-of-home placements

OBJECTIVE: To determine how often and for what reasons a hospital-based multidisciplinary child abuse team concluded that a report of alleged or suspected child abuse was unnecessary in young children with fractures. METHODS: A retrospective review was completed of all children less than 12 months of age who, because of fractures, were referred to the hospital multidisciplinary child abuse team for consultation regarding the need to consider child abuse. RESULTS: The team received 99 consultations, reported 92 (93%) children as alleged or possible victims of physical abuse, and did not report 7 (7%). Age at presentation of those who were reported was 4.2 months compared to 3.0 months in the non-reported group. The average number of fractures in the reported group was 2.9 (SD 3.53) compared to 3.4 (SD 4.6) in the non-reported group. Factors that led to cases not being reported included: (a) a trauma history consistent with the fracture (n=4), (b) a diagnosis of bone fragility secondary to genetic, nutritional or medical therapy etiologies (n=2), and (c) iatrogenic fracture (n=1). CONCLUSIONS: Seven percent of the children less than 12 months of age and with at least one fracture referred to the multidisciplinary team for evaluation of possible child abuse were not reported as alleged or suspected physical abuse. The involvement of the hospital multidisciplinary child abuse team may have prevented unnecessary investigation by the county social services agency and/or police, and possible out-of-home temporary placement.     

Physiological reactivity, social support, and memory in early childhood

The interactive effects of physiological reactivity and social support on children's memory were examined. Four- to 6-year-olds completed a laboratory protocol during which autonomic responses and salivary cortisol were measured. Memory was assessed shortly afterward and 2 weeks later. During the second interview, children were questioned by a supportive or nonsupportive interviewer. Few significant relations emerged between reactivity and children's short-term memory. Following a 2-week delay, cortisol reactivity was associated with poorer memory and autonomic reactivity was associated with increased accuracy among children questioned in a supportive manner but decreased accuracy among children questioned in a nonsupportive manner. Results question traditional conceptualizations of reactivity as a risk factor and instead suggest that reactivity may only confer risk in certain environmental contexts.     

The resiliency wheel: A training model for enhancing the effectiveness of cross-cultural interviews

The Resiliency Wheel provides interview guidance tocounselors in training. The interview format providesenough structure for beginning counselors to feelcomfortable with the questions, but offers flexibilityto more experienced counselors as they formulate newquestions as the client's story unfolds. TheResiliency Wheel provides a way for counselors to linkindividual client strengths while drawing from thefollowing factors: person, family, community, spirit,and culture. A diagram of the resiliency wheel can beused to record client information. The questionsallow the counselor in training to become familiarwith other cultures and worldviews. This awarenessincreases a counselor's cultural sensitivity andempathy around issues of oppression, discrimination,and racism due to one's ethnicity. The studentcounselor is given the opportunity to ask specificquestions about a culture and realize the differences,but also the similarities between the counselor andthe client. The Resiliency Wheel assists thecounselor to develop a holistic understanding of theclient and to be able to reflect this understanding tothe client visually as well as verbally. Theinterview process in itself can bring about a deepersharing of client identity and experience,contributing to the bond between client and counselor.