Using visits to interactive science and technology centers,museums, aquaria,and zoos to promote learning in science

This article received the “Implications of Research for Educational Practice” award at the 1995 meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science. The award is made possible by Carolina Biological Supply. An adaptation of this article, entitled “Don’t Compare, Complement: Making Best Use of Science Centres and Museums,” was published in the 1995 Set: Research Information for Teachers, Number 1, Item 1, by the New Zealand and Australian Councils for Education Research.     

Supporting families: a nurturing teacher education strategy in Nauru

There has been little recent documentation concerning Pacific family support for family members locally involved in university study in their Pacific home country and how such responses affect both parties. Some studies dealing with family support for student family members, including Pacific families residing in the USA, have been published. A New Zealand Ministry of Education report on Pasifika students’ educational success rates raised the need for effective family support contexts. Another study researched the family support negotiation patterns of mature-age part-time students in Australia, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. Only one University of the South Pacific research focused on Pacific family and community expectations of family members studying and residing with their families in their Pacific home countries. This Nauru-based study describes mixed support responses from Nauruan families towards their teacher education student family members and Nauru Department of Education student engagement and well-being development strategies.     

The long‐day childcare context: implications for toddlers' pretend play

Forty‐eight toddlers aged 17 to 31 months attending long‐day childcare participated in this project, which examined some of the influences of the day‐care context on their emerging pretend play. Ninety minutes of video‐taped observations were collected for each participant as they engaged in free play with their same‐age peers and their pre‐school‐aged peers. The play environment was assessed on a number of dimensions, including the provision of play materials, the quality of care and staff attitudes toward play. Additionally, the participants' weekly attendance pattern was taken into consideration. The complexity of pretend play was coded in accordance with Westby's Symbolic Play Scale (1991 Westby C A scale for assessing children's pretend play 1991 in: C. E. Shaefer, K. Gitlin & A. Sandgrund (Eds) Play diagnosis and assessment New York Wiley 131 161  [Google Scholar]). Two components of the long‐day childcare context—play with pre‐school‐aged peers and the unsatisfactory provision of play materials—were found to be significantly influential on the participants' complexity of pretend play. An attendance of four or more days in childcare was also found to be favourable. A number of implications for educational programming in the day‐care context arise from these results.     

Teaching as a Practice and a Community of Practice: the Limits of Commonality and the Demands of Diversity

This paper examines some neglected aspects of the conceptualisation of teaching as a 'practice' and as involving a 'community of practice'. The concepts of a 'practice' and of a 'community of practice' are brought into focus by contrasting the differing senses of the notions employed in the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Etienne Wenger respectively. Concepts of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' which embody a coherent overall holistic vision of education are contrasted with senses of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' which relate to lower level, specific and subordinate elements of the educational process which are detachable from such visions. The possibility of specifying a single, common, overall, holistic conception of an educational 'practice' or 'community of practice' in the context of a pluralistic, diverse, liberal democratic society is discussed. It is suggested that the demands of diversity in this context open up the possibility of, and the need for, diverse forms of teacher education and training based on differing and partly competing conceptions of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' involving contrasting, coherent, overall, holistic visions of education.     

Factors affecting completion of apprenticeship training in England

This paper examines factors that are associated with the probability of completion of apprenticeship programmes by individual learners in England. Data are from the 2008/2009 academic year Individualised Learner Record – the administrative database containing information on all learners in the Further Education system in England. The analysis considers various factors including demographic characteristics of apprentices, aspects of their programme and an indicator of the local labour market context in which they participate in the apprenticeship. The study considers both Apprenticeships (Level 2) and Advanced Apprenticeships (Level 3) and finds a variety of factors that have a significant effect on the likelihood of completion. Gender-related differences are found only within particular frameworks (akin to the subject or sector). Local unemployment rates are found to have a significant effect on the probability of completion with the direction of this relationship differing between the two levels. The findings highlight that the contemporaneous goals of increasing participation in apprenticeship and improving completion rates cannot be easily achieved through the same actions. Despite this, the importance of completion of an apprenticeship cannot be denied for a variety of reasons including the penalties individuals may suffer in the labour market due to non-completion.     

Virtually Forgotten: Special Education Students in Cyber Schools

The area of online K-12 education is experiencing rapid growth, yet practice has greatly surpassed the research. This article looks to add to the field by examining special education students enrolled in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There were over 2600 students in the state that were identified as special education students and enrolled in virtual schools in 2009 according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The population of special education students in cyber school mirrors the population of special education students in brick and mortar classrooms, thus it is important to understand the characteristics associated with special needs learners as current research and practices are not designed to serve this population. Understanding the characteristics of this group is fundamental for instructional design and educational practice to serve the needs of these diverse learners.     

Performance Assessment and Cost Evaluation – A Case Study

This article reports on an empirical study of the management of curriculum and instruction in South African secondary schools. Drawing on data collected from 200 schools in 2007, a series of regression analyses tested the relationship between various dimensions of leadership and student achievement gains over time. Whilst the research confirms what we do know about school management in South Africa, and aligns with much of the international research base, the strong emphasis that emerges on school–community relations offers important insights for school management development.     

Positioning oneself for leadership: feelings of vulnerability among aspirant school principals

The research context for this article is the difficulty being experienced by a number of school systems, especially in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, in recruiting principals. In our discussion we draw on preliminary findings from ongoing research into the experiences of a cohort of aspiring primary and secondary school principals. Our data comprise the electronic journal (E‐journal) entries of the 21 aspirants. We characterize the E‐journal reflections as identity narratives in which the aspirants are able to explore a range of feelings, challenges and uncertainties associated with the possibility of future principal role incumbency. The significance of these E‐journalling narratives, therefore, is that they provide aspirants with an opportunity, through semi‐private reflection, to begin positioning themselves for leadership. For this reason we articulate the idea of ‘positioning space’, a supportive holding environment which facilitates the exploration of potential and possible selves and we explore some properties and protocols associated with occupancy of this space.     

Language,Truth, Justice,and Sporting Practice

In this article, we examine philosophy of sport as a field of study in Japan, its history, characteristics, and future prospects, as part of a contribution to the international development of the discipline of sport philosophy. The Japan Society for the Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education has been holding an annual sport philosophy conference every year since its inception in 1978. Nevertheless, the trends of sport philosophy in Japan have not been conveyed abroad. The language barrier between Japanese and English as an international communication tool makes it difficult to spread our work on the philosophy of sport throughout the world. The question arises as to whether the philosophy of sport in Japan has the same trends as those in the Western countries. Is it reasonable to assume that it has different aspects and interests than philosophy of sport in English-speaking countries? We will also try to address these questions for our audience