Teaching within a Curricular Zone of Safety: School Culture and the Situated Nature of Student Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to continue the theoretical delineation of the nature of pedagogical content knowledge. Two student teachers were observed teaching an elementary games and high school sport unit and interviewed in depth about their lessons, biography, pedagogical content knowledge, and aspects of the school culture. Data were analyzed by constant comparison and analytic induction. Trustworthiness was established through member checks and triangulation. In the high school, both student teachers tried to use extending and refining tasks, as they had in the elementary school. But, when confronted with aspects of the high school culture, both retreated to a curricular zone of safety relying on application tasks. This zone, the defining aspect of their pedagogical content knowledge of teaching sports, emerged from and was constituted by the relations among goals, capabilities, teaching, inadequate pedagogical content knowledge, and aspects of the school culture. It is argued that situated and cultural orientations contribute to psychological orientations currently used to delineate pedagogical content knowledge. A curricular zone of safety is offered as a concept that helped account for the emergence and persistence of particular ways of knowing content.     

Physiological Effects of Deep Water Running following a Land-Based Training Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in knowledge representation and problem solutions in expert and novice youth baseball players. Ninety-four players in two age divisions, 7–8 years of age and 9–10 years of age, were assigned to three levels of expertise: high; average; and low skilled. Each subject participated in an interview session to elicit knowledge representation and solutions to five different defensive game situations. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for content, solution to the problem, errors in problem solution, and qualitative trends. The frequency of advanced solutions to each of the five situations were analyzed in separate chi-square tests for age and expertise. Differences among the levels of expertise were found for the accuracy of solutions to three complex situations. Age was significant for only one situation. Patterns of knowledge content accessed during advanced and less advanced responses indicated both experts and novices were in a beginning stage of developing baseball knowledge structures. Errors in problem solutions indicated children had difficulty monitoring critical conditions and making correct inferences. Players' and teammates' ability to execute baseball skills seemed to influence the content and structure of tactical knowledge accessed during problem solution.     

The use of computers in K-12 schools in turkey

Through the determined efforts of MONE, more than one third of the existing 5,851 schools have at least one computer lab. It is clear that the number of computers in schools in Turkey will continue to increase.     

Towards a Collaborative Approach to Teacher Empowerment

This paper outlines a project based on an approach to teacher empowerment through collaborative action research. Using accounts from teachers involved in the project, the conditions necessary for the development of collegiality on in-service courses are explored. The nature and significance of agenda setting and ways of introducing tools for empowerment are described. The use of collaborative autobiography (CA), interpersonal process recall (1PR) and a general supervisory framework (GSF) are analysed in detail. The paper concludes with comment on the extent to which teachers are empowered by these tools to reconstruct the complex relationships between power, knowledge, ideology and schooling which dominate much of their working lives.     

‘Good books’: is there a future for academic writing within the educational publishing industry?

This paper draws on questionnaire responses received (via e‐mail) during the period 2002–2003 from senior commissioning editors located within seven of the major UK publishing outlets. Drawing on the analytical framework of an earlier study by Nixon (1999 Nixon, J. (1999). Teachers, writers, professionals. Is there anybody out there. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2): 207–221. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]), it focuses on the mediation of educational studies by market forces operating within and upon the educational publishing industry. More specifically it explores issues relating to the construction of readership, authorship and editorship within that force field of market pressures. Central to the argument is the claim that, in its increasing exposure to market forces, the public space afforded by educational publishing is now highly restrictive. The paper concludes with a call for a sustained debate on the future of academic publishing in general, and educational publishing in particular.     

Concerns about research and prevention strategies in Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) abuse

There would seem to be three motives for research into Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) abuse; first to enhance treatment; second to enhance our understanding of the psychopathology of those who carry out the abuse; and third to find interventions to prevent its occurrence. We will argue that only the first justification is valid. The second and third should be questioned for several reasons including: MSBP abuse is the wrong kind of event to think of in terms of categorical diagnosis; rare events are inherently difficult to predict; and better research targets are available. We propose that research energy would be more productively directed towards furthering our understanding of somatization and certain problematic aspects of modern pediatric practice. We offer suggestions as to appropriate areas for research.     

The Virtual Field Station (VFS): using a virtual reality environment for ecological fieldwork in A-Level biological studies—Case Study 3

Case studies are one way of producing the evidential base necessary for ICT to become embedded in everyday teaching and learning. Such case studies are vital for the purposes of generalisation. Also, teacher generated case-studies have the benefit of being research that is done by teachers in conjunction with Higher Education support and mediation, as opposed to research being done to teachers by Higher Education. One such teacher-generated case study at the cutting edge of ICT researches the effectiveness of a Virtual Field Station for the teaching of an A Level biology topic. The subject was the exotic one of the Mediterranean sea turtle. Student fieldwork involving these fascinating creatures is desirable but difficult, as the sea turtle's habitat is the archipelago of the Aegean Sea. The paper argues that a Virtual Field Centre is an effective substitute for actuality in terms of the development of student knowledge and understanding for examination purposes. As such, it is an innovative development that sits at the forefront of an area of Science Education that is rapidly developing, ie ICT-mediated teaching and learning.     

Do public schools have a future? A case study of retrenchment and its implications

The present paper describes a model for predicting the consequences of reduced funding for public education and a case study designed as an initial test of the validity of the model. The case study highlights an inner-city high school in San Jose, California, during the aftermath of Proposition 13. As a result of the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, severe limitations were placed on the ability of school districts in California to generate revenues from property taxes. San Jose High School was forced to cut programs and personnel. The impact of these cuts on the capacity of the school to serve its urban clients is investigated. Findings from the case study support the model's prediction that budget cuts in public education are more likely to exert a negative impact on disadvantaged students than on students from middle-class homes. Implications of further cuts in public education in general are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.     

Examination of a learning style topology

This study provides an initial examination of a learning style topology through the comparison of information processing and instructional preference toponymies. It was hypothesized that learning style modes would be discernible within each of these toponymies and that the toponymies would demonstrate orthogonality. Data analyzed for 429 university students supported these hypotheses.