Students' conceptions of chemical change

One hundred high school chemistry students who had completed a unit on chemical change were given a written instrument in which they were shown three oxidation-reduction reactions and were asked to explain them. Eleven students representing a range of achievement levels were chosen for more intensive clinical interviews in which they explained their responses, evaluated the quality of their responses, and compared them to other hypothetical responses. Interview results revealed that students commonly experienced difficulties at three different epistemological levels: 1. Chemical knowledge. Most students failed to invoke atoms and molecules as explanatory constructs, even though they had been emphasized in their chemistry course. Some students also listed “substances” such as heat, cold, or decay as reactants or products. 2. Conservation reasoning. Many students could not predict or explain mass changes in the chemical reactions. Their most common problems included (a) a tendency to treat chemical changes such as rusting as physical changes in form or state, and (b) failure to understand the role of invisible (in this case gaseous) reactants or products in the reactions. 3. Explanatory ideals. Many students demonstrated a preference for explanations based on superficial analogies with everyday events (e.g., rusting is like decay) over explanations based on chemical theories. Only one of the 11 students interviewed demonstrated mastery of the unit's contents at all three levels. Results of this and other research indicate a need for substantial revision in chemistry teaching practice.     

Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Effectiveness and School Effectiveness: Perspectives from the USA

This article provides historical overviews of the conceptual and research and development focus of teacher evaluation, teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness research in the USA. Pertinent literature is cited and arguments are made that these lines of inquiry have coexisted for nearly four without adequate integration. With the fourth stage of school effectiveness research in process, there is a recognition that within school context variables, particularly teacher effectiveness, have important effects on school improvement and school outcomes. Similarly, there is the recognition that findings from school effectiveness research have relevance for studies of teacher effectiveness and ongoing developments in teacher evaluation. Examples of: (a) new generation, learner-centered teacher evaluation systems in the USA that are informed by teacher and school effectiveness research; and (b) the fourth stage of school effectiveness research are described. It is proposed that these lines of research should be merged as completely as possible.     

Developing and sustaining an educative mentoring model of STEM teacher professional development through collaborative partnership

In this paper, we present details of a partnership undertaken by four universities with field-based, alternative STEM teacher preparation programs and a large urban school district to provide ongoing professional support for teachers serving as mentors for individuals preparing for careers in high-poverty schools. We also present key findings related to our implementation of an educative mentoring professional learning community (PLC) as a professional development (PD) model for these mentors. Our analysis reveals that mentors as well as candidates identified the PD program as addressing their specific interests and concerns, and that they were regularly and deeply engaged with key activities that were part of each session’s agenda. These findings signal how key elements of PD workshops can contribute to creating and sustaining a local but replicable PLC utilizing an educative mentoring model to support mentors and the future teachers whom they support.     

Orthography to Phonology and Meaning: Comparisons Across and within Writing Systems

According to the Universal Writing System Constraint, all writing systems encode language, and thus reflect basic properties of the linguistic system they encode. According to a second universal, the Universal Phonological Principle, the activation of word pronunciations occurs for skilled readers across all writing systems. We review recent research that illustrates the implications of these two universal principles both across and within writing systems. Within the family of alphabetic systems, differences between Korean and English arise in the languages, rather than the orthographies, while the reverse appears to be true for German and English differences. Across writing systems, new Event Related Potentials (ERP) experiments show the robustness of phonology across Chinese and English systems and chart the time course of word reading in Chinese and English for Chinese bilinguals and for English speakers learning Chinese. The ERP results show differences between Chinese and English for both groups and suggest that the time course of word processes and the brain areas identified as sources for the ERP components differ both as a result of writing system and the skill of the reader. We propose the System Accommodation Hypothesis, that reading processes and the neural structures that support them accommodate to specific visual and structural features of a new writing system.The research reported in this paper was made possible by National Science Foundation award BN0113243 to the first author.     

Attachment theory: Implications for school psychology

The effective practice of school psychology requires a strong research and theoretical base, a framework that encompasses developmental processes and outcomes, both adaptive and maladaptive, which facilitates assessment and intervention and offers insight into classroom and family dynamics. Attachment theory provides the school psychologist with just such a framework. In the present article we provide a brief overview of attachment theory and describe risk factors for development of insecure attachment. Behavioral trajectories of children and adolescents according to attachment classification are discussed. Finally, student–teacher interactions within an attachment perspective and implications for interventions are presented. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 247–259, 2004.     

Experiences with Counselor Training in Central Europe: Voices from Student Trainees

Globalization has led to an increase in United States-influenced counseling programs the world over; however, the extent to which these training models apply to other cultures is unclear. Using a sample of master’s-level counseling students studying in the Czech Republic (n?=?5), the authors conducted a phenomenological inquiry examining the experiences of European students trained in a program developed and supervised by faculty in the United States. Three themes (and potential barriers) related to English-language training programs in Central Europe included: cultural differences between faculty and students, complications related to the notion of professional identity, and concerns related to the utility of wellness-based principles in the Czech Republic. Implications for educators include cultural adaptation of training and course material as well as reframing illness perspectives through a wellness lens.     

Educational technology at the crossroads: New mindsets and new directions

Educational technology seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. Many exciting things are happening in the field, but increasingly we educational technologists find ourselves on the sidelines in our own ballgame. People from other disciplines are taking an interest in educational technology, but they show little interest in our knowledge base (often even little awareness that it exists!) and little interest in our professional organizations and publications. Why is this happening? What can we do about it? To what extent might our mindset be the problem? What new directions do we need to pursue to improve the health and value of our field? These are the central issues which this article discusses.     

Conceptual Physical Education: A Secondary Innovation

ABSTRACT

Over the last 40 years, the Conceptual Physical Education (CPE) movement has played an important role in the evolution of secondary school physical education (PE). In this article, we trace the history of CPE as well as fitness education (FE) programs that share common objectives with CPE. CPE at the college/university level is almost universal and has been shown to be a longstanding innovation. The information provided here suggests that CPE/FE programs at the secondary level are also an innovation, rather than a passing fad. Among the topics explored include factors precipitating the innovation, the stages of implementation, the current status of the innovation, factors leading to success, barriers to be overcome in program implementation, and suggestions for the future. Finally, evidence is provided to show that CPE, when conducted with fidelity, can be effective in promoting the overarching objective of quality PE programs—promoting lifelong physical activity.     

Family Ecologies of Ethnic Minority Children

This article discusses a proposed interconnectedness between the ecologies of ethnic minority families, adaptive strategies, socialization goals, and child behavioral outcomes. The ethnic minority groups included are African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian Pacific Americans, and Hispanics. Demographic information on population size, geographic area of concentration, and preferred identity terms is provided. It is argued that adaptive strategies, including extendedness of families and role flexibility, biculturalism, and ancestral worldview, emerge from the ecological challenges of ethnic stratification status. These adaptive strategies foster the child-rearing goals of positive orientation to the ethnic group and socialization for interdependence, which in turn enhance the developmental outcomes of cognitive flexibility and sensitivity to discontinuities among ethnic minority children.     

Does “all students” include girls? Some reflections on recent educational practice and theory

Most people think of the last decade as one where there has been a lot of attention to sexism, gender and equal opportunity. This paper will analyse some recent policy, practice and theory to suggest that much of this apparent attention is illusory and that general policies and discussions of the period are often insensitive to issues of sexism. Examples to be discussed will be drawn from Ministerial and Education Department policy in Victoria; positions taken by teacher unions and “radicals”; and some academic work which attempts to deal with “class, sex and ethnicity” simultaneously.