Large‐scale science education intervention research we can use

This article develops an argument that the type of intervention research most useful for improving science teaching and learning and leading to scalable interventions includes both research to develop and gather evidence of the efficacy of innovations and a different kind of research, design‐based implementation research (DBIR). DBIR in education focuses on what is required to bring interventions and knowledge about learning to all students, wherever they might engage in science learning. This research focuses on implementation, both in the development and initial testing of interventions and in the scaling up process. In contrast to traditional intervention research that focuses principally on one level of educational systems, DBIR designs and tests interventions that cross levels and settings of learning, with the aim of investigating and improving the effective implementation of interventions. The article concludes by outlining four areas of DBIR that may improve the likelihood that new standards for science education will achieve their intended purpose of establishing an effective, equitable, and coherent system of opportunities for science learning in the United States. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 281–304, 2012     

Learning Environment and Attitudes Associated with an Innovative Science Course Designed for Prospective Elementary Teachers

This study assessed the effectiveness of an innovative science course for improving prospective elementary teachers’ perceptions of laboratory learning environments and attitudes towards science. The sample consisted of 27 classes with 525 female students in a large urban university. Changing students’ ideas about science laboratory teaching and learning and creating more positive attitudes towards science were accomplished by using a guided open-ended approach to investigations, together with instructors who used cooperative learning groups to create a supportive environment. Ideas and attitudes prior to the course were assessed using a questionnaire focusing on the students’ previous science laboratory courses, and these were compared to data collected at the end of the course. Students reported large and statistically significant improvements on all seven scales assessing the laboratory learning environment and attitudes towards science. The largest gains were observed for Open-Endedness and Material Environment (with effect sizes of 6.74 and 3.82 standard deviations, respectively). An investigation of attitude-environment associations revealed numerous positive and statistically significant associations in both univariate and multivariate analyses. In particular, the level of Instructor Support was the strongest independent predictor of student attitudes at two levels of analysis.     

Classroom climate as predictor and criterion in science education research

Summary and conclusion The present study has reported the use of a set of nine classroom climate dimensions both as predictor and criterion variables in research related to ASEP. When the climate dimensions were employed as independent variables, it was found that the climate variables contributed an appreciable amount to the variance explained in various learning outcomes over and above that explained by instructional and aptitudinal variables alone. When the climate measures were employed as dependent variables, it was found that ASEP and control pupuls had significantly different perceptions of their classrooms along a number of the classroom dimensions.     

Multicultural Training Experiences as Predictors of Multicultural Competencies: Students' Perspectives

The authors surveyed a national sample of master's‐level counseling students regarding their multicultural training experiences and their multicultural counseling competencies. A series of hierarchical regression models tested the prediction of inventoried competencies from measures of selected training experiences: (a) program cultural ambience or learning environment, (b) multicultural instructional strategies, and (c) multicultural clinical experiences. Perceptions of program cultural ambience or learning environment predicted all multicultural competencies: knowledge, skills, awareness, and relationship. Additional findings support the importance of clinical training experiences in the context of effective multicultural training.     

Catering for teachers’ individual teaching differences in China: the case of forming reciprocal coaching circles supported by university-based teacher educators

Opportunities for high quality teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) are considered scarce in Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In addition, there seem to be few sustainable outcomes of teachers’ CPD. The present study aimed to address English teachers’ dissatisfaction with their own CPD in China. With some university-based teacher educators’ support, reciprocal coaching circles were formed by English teachers, where they identified common teaching problems and worked out practical solutions appropriate for their local contexts collaboratively. The findings suggest multiple benefits, including higher confidence in teaching, an expanded repertoire of teaching strategies, and teachers’ professional communities. Both in-service teachers and university-based teacher educators contribute to reciprocal coaching circles in complimentary ways, with local teachers being the main agent for change and university-based teacher educators being facilitators.     

Hidden fragility: Closure among licensed child-care services in British Columbia

Research shows that stability is one component of quality child care. We investigate the understudied phenomenon of the stability of child-care facilities over time, focusing on the province of British Columbia, Canada. Although net figures show growth in the number of providers between 1997 and 2001, they obfuscate a dramatic level of closure among centers and family child caregivers. Our study analyzes closure rates in the light of caregiver and facility characteristics for more than 2500 licensed services, plus the community contexts in which the services operate. Results underscore the importance of public policy for center stability, re-confirm the benefits of paying higher wages to staff, and shed light on the influence of socioeconomic trends over the sector.     

Can any good come out of researching in science education and being a science teacher at the same time?

Recent experience has demonstrated that for an aged researcher, teaching secondary school science at a selective high school while committed to carrying out research in science education is riddled with difficulties. With respect to the research, problems ranged from there being too much time required to establish one's credentials as a teacher, to too much research being too easily suggested and undertaken. With respect to the teaching, among other things, it was too time-consuming, there were too many other duties to perform and other teachers became too involved in one's own interests. To make matters worse, there were too many students, they were too varied, too interesting and the relationship with them became too rewarding. A thoroughly disturbing state of affairs. Specialisations: chemical education, history and philosophy of science, laboratory work, student conceptualisations.     

Helping students become better learners: a case study in teacher education

The aim of this project is to increase teacher education students' understanding of the learning process by focussing on their own learning experiences. 67 preservice teacher education students in 4 classes completed measures of academic locus of control and study processes before and after a semester course in a specially designed programme in Educational Psychology. The programme focuses on students taking greater responsibility for their own learning by exposing them to a variety of learning experiences. These experiences include negotiation of the curriculum, peer discussion and teaching, learning contracts, self, peer and collaborative assessment and critical reflection on these and other learning experiences by means of an ongoing learning log.Results indicate an increase in academic locus of control for one class, and an increase in deep motive, achieving strategy, deep approach and deep achieving approach to learning for the whole group. These outcomes are discussed in terms of the congruence between these changes and the particular learning experiences to which the students were exposed.     

Teacher characteristics and pupil outcomes in secondary science classrooms

Conclusion The present research employed data collected in two separate studies related to ASEP to investigate relationships of changes in seven pupils learning outcomes with four teacher characteristics and four instruction-teacher interactions. A significant relationship (p<.05) emerged between changes in a learning outcome and a teacher characteristic in the following three cases: changes in critical thinking in science were more favourable in classes with less pupil-centredness teachers, and changes in attitude to science were more favourable in classes with female teachers and those with more pupil-centredness teachers. A significant relationship also emerged between changes in a learning outcome and the interaction of the instructional variable (ASEP/control) with a teacher characteristic in four cases, and these were interpreted in the paper. In addition to the specific findings outlined above, two more general tentative conclusions can be advanced. First, the use of common samples in separate studies appears useful for allowing the investigation of worthwhile questions which go beyond the bounds of the individual studies. Second, in view of the number of interesting relationships found between changes in learning outcomes and teacher and instruction-teacher interaction variables, it could be useful to replicate the present study.     

Changing Classroom Environments in Urban Middle Schools

This study involved three phases. First, we developed and validated the Elementary and Middle School Inventory of Classroom Environments (ICE) for assessing upper primary and middle school (Grades 6–8) students' perceived and preferred classroom environment. Second, typical classroom environments in an urban setting were described based on quantitative and qualitative data, including differences between the perceptions of students of different genders. Finally, teachers' participation in action research techniques, involving the use of feedback on perceived and preferred classroom environment, was evaluated in terms of effectiveness in promoting improvement in classroom environments. The sample consisted of ten middle grade teachers and their 43 classes of students in an urban North Texas school setting. Perceived and preferred forms of the ICE, assessing Cooperation, Teacher Empathy, Involvement and Task Orientation, were administered. Factor and item analyses supported the internal consistency reliability of a four-factor version of the perceived and preferred forms of the ICE for both the individual student and the class mean as the units of analysis. The perceived and preferred environments of different classes are described based on profiles of classroom environment scores. When teachers were selected from the original sample to participate in an attempt to alter their classroom environments, changes in classroom climate occurred, thus supporting the efficacy of the environmental change strategy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.