Understanding Students' Experiments—What kind of support do they need in inquiry tasks?

Inquiry learning is a widely recognized method for fostering inquiry competence in science education. Nevertheless, there is discussion about how to best support students while working on inquiry tasks (in this case: experiments on causal relationships). To identify the kind of support students need in order to design experiments in upper grades, an empirical study consisting of two parts was conducted. The first part, a quantitative test (N?=?96), tested students' competences in designing an experiment. It was found that students need scaffolding in basic aspects of designing (like dependent and independent variables), to reach higher levels, since only about thirty percent reach levels II or III out of three levels. On more reflective aspects (like confounding variables, test times and repetitions), only a maximum of twenty-five percent reached level I or higher; therefore, even more support is needed on these aspects. The second part of the study was a qualitative video-analysis of students' discussions, designs and implementations of an experiment. It was found that support is needed on procedural knowledge and understanding. Possible implications for inquiry support are discussed.     

Development of student–teacher relationships in rural early elementary classrooms

An increasing body of literature documents associations between student–teacher relationships, children's academic success, and children's social competence in school. Less is known about characteristics and processes involved in the quality of relationships between students and teachers, and little research has examined these issues with populations of young students and teachers living in rural communities. The current study examined the relationships between rural kindergarten and first-grade students and their teachers in spring of the school year, predicted by child demographic factors, child process factors, and teacher characteristics. Using a multi-level model to account for clustering of children in classrooms, children's behavior and literacy skills were examined as contributors to the teachers’ perceptions of the developing teacher–student relationship, focusing on their potential to mediate associations between more distal characteristics and teacher–student relationships. Controlling for relationship conflict in fall, boys and African American students were more likely to have relationships with teachers that were higher in conflict in spring. When behavior and literacy skills measures were added to the model, children's behavior mediated the effect of gender, such that behavior problems accounted for much of the variance in student–teacher conflict associated with gender. However, neither behavior problems nor literacy skills mediated the effects of minority status on conflict; African American students had poorer relationships with teachers regardless of behavior or literacy skills.     

Living at the Border: between multiculturality,complexity and action research

The author looks into the phases of her personal experience in order to present the difficulties as well as the richness of ‘living at the border’ and of building bridges between different worlds. The prevailing Anglo-Saxon culture, above all in the world of research, obliges those who do not belong to this culture to undergo a form of tension between adaptation to language rules and ways of thinking that are foreign to them, and the need to maintain cultural and personal differences while trying to communicate. The experience of ‘contagion’ between ideas and ways of representing the world, that was seen within the Environment and School Initiatives Project (ENSI) project and that the author had the opportunity to share with John Elliott, shows the possibilities offered by these encounters. Issues such as those of the complexity and quality of learning have interweaved with those of action research and evaluation, and have crossed and enriched the values and cultures of which we were implicitly and explicitly the bearers. In the final section the author makes an attempt to illustrate the risks of today's globalisation and the tendency to eliminate borders, viewed as obstacles to individual freedom, for a kind of equalisation which, by eliminating the differences, also eliminates the possibility of development and of creativity.     

New roles for teachers unions? Reform unionism in school decentralization

Of late, teachers unions have worked together with district management in new and notable ways. This paper examines the role of teachers unions in shaping the Together Initiative (TI), which seeks to increase autonomy and broaden decision making in urban schools in one northeastern state. In general, state-level union leaders have taken more consistently reform-oriented stances than those adopted by their district-level counterparts. We found that district-level union leaders supported TI’s growth and were willing to work with district leaders to reform schools in districts where labor-management relations had been collaborative in recent years and in schools where union leaders trusted the principal. Where labor-management relations were less positive and the union viewed principals as more arbitrary, union leaders practiced more industrial-style leadership.     

An investigation of two-way text messaging use with deaf students at the secondary level

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students are often delayed in developing their independent living skills because of parental restrictions on activities outside the home due to worries about their child's inability to communicate, their whereabouts, and their general safety. Recent accounts of the use of two-way text messagers suggests that, like electronic mail, distance communication problems that have long plagued deaf people may be ameliorated--by the use of such technology (M. R. Power & D. Power, 2004; S. S. Rhone & Cox News Service, 2002). This project was designed as an initial foray into investigating the use of two-way text messaging technology as a way of increasing the independence of deaf adolescents and reducing their parents' anxiety about their safety and responsibility. All the deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the deaf and hard-of-hearing programs at two urban high schools (ages 13-19), the staff of the deaf departments at these two schools, and the parents/guardians of the students participated in this study. Preuse surveys, postuse surveys, and monthly statistics on the number of times each pager was used enabled us to chart how often the participants used the technology. The data were used to identify concerns that parents have about student independence and safety, the extent to which deaf students engage in independent activities, and expectations surrounding how two-way text messaging use might increase independence and literacy skills. The data collected on this project to date confirm that two-way text messaging technology is indeed useful for deaf adolescents and helps alleviate some of the concerns that have kept them from developing independence as quickly or readily as their hearing peers. The potential policy implications for this research are discussed.     

高等教育制度变迁中的制度创立者、机遇和预见

本文利用美国和德国高等教育制度变迁的历史比较数据,试图对导致制度变迁的三类因素的普遍性和运行机制进行评价。这些因素是:机遇(或外因)、内因以及理性的人类预见。其中理性预见是引起制度变迁的因素当中最少出现的,笔者例举了制度创立者和政府对制度变迁的干预来加以说明,并讨论了这些干预的相对效果。     

为意义建构学习设计教学--学习与教学概说

教育心理学研究教学如何影响学习。教学与学习是彼此互相联系的过程,从而促成学习者发生改变。学习可以比喻为“反应增强”或“知识获得”或“知识建构”．这三种比喻所建议的教学方法都有它的优势所在。学习时发生着三种记忆．即感觉记忆,短时记忆（工作记忆）和长时记忆;与之相配备的三种基本学习过程分别是选择、组织和整合。教学必须帮助学习者选择相关的信息．组织信息和整合信息。也就是说,有意义学习依赖于在学习中的积极认知加工或知识建构。     

Verletzungen im Leistungssport aus soziologischer Perspektive

Injury in competitive sport is widely seen as a topic within the medical and psychological domain. This article gives an overview of sociological research on dealing with injury in competitive sport. Besides findings of a culture of risk, medical treatment practices and the governance of medical support systems, there are still many unanswered questions to which the sociology of sport could make a relevant contribution. Perspectives for future studies correspond with the social dynamics of injury, the structural role constraints in a medical treatment or rehabilitation context, and the governance of complex social networks for injury prevention, treatment and rehabilitation processes.