Inquiry identity and science teacher professional development

An effective inquiry-oriented science teacher possesses more than the skills of teaching through investigation. They must address philosophies, and ways of interacting as a member of a group of educators who value and practice science through inquiry. Professional development opportunities can support inquiry identity development, but most often they address teaching practices from limited cognitive perspectives, leaving unexplored the shifts in identity that may accompany teachers along their journey in becoming skilled in inquiry-oriented instruction. In this forum article, we envision Victoria Deneroff’s argument that “professional development could be designed to facilitate reflexive transformation of identity within professional learning environments” (2013, p. 33). Instructional coaching, cogenerative dialogues, and online professional communities are discussed as ways to promote inquiry identity formation and collaboration in ways that empower and deepen science teachers’ conversations related to personal and professional efficacy in the service of improved science teaching and learning.     

The genetic-environmental etiology of cognitive school readiness and later academic achievement in early childhood

Using a genetic design of 840 60-month-old twins, this study investigated the genetic and environmental contributions to (a) individual differences in four components of cognitive school readiness, (b) the general ability underlying these four components, and (c) the predictive association between school readiness and school achievement. Results revealed that the contribution of the shared environment for cognitive school readiness was substantial. Genetic effects were more important for the core abilities underlying school readiness than for each specific skill, although shared environment remained the largest factor overall. Genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental factors all accounted for the predictive association between school readiness and early school achievement. These results contribute to a better understanding of the early determinants of school readiness.     

The rise of the organisational society in Canadian and U.S. textbooks: 1836-2011

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how organisations have increasingly been portrayed in textbooks as solving social problems as well as contributing to national development. Findings from 527 Canadian and U.S. textbooks illustrate the rise of an organisational society during the time period between 1836 and 2011. Discussions of for-profit and non-profit forms of organisations rise early on in both countries, creating the foundation for an organisational society, which expands to incorporate global organisations in the post-World War II period. We argue that such portrayals in textbooks both reflect and legitimise the role of organisations in society, strengthening their taken-for-granted status as social actors.     

Hidden in plain sight: defying juridical racialization in Rhinelander v. Rhinelander

This article examines the intersectionality of law and race to argue that law, in its broadest understanding, has played a pivotal role in the performative constitution of racial subjects. This disciplinary regulation, which has operated to “fix” an individual within a racial status under law, has augmented the production of the individual as a raced subject. An analysis of Rhinelander v. Rhinelander, however, illuminates that a defiance of racial performative dictates can render “race” hidden in plain sight. This rendering represents an escape from the regulatory mechanisms of law, posing a counter‐power that threatens to disturb hegemonic whiteness.     

Searching for health: the topography of the first page

Members of the lay public are turning increasingly to the internet to answer health-related questions. Some authors suggest that the widespread availability of online health information has dislodged medical knowledge from its traditional institutional base and enabled a growing role for alternative or previously unrecognized health perspectives and ‘lay health expertise’. Others have argued, however, that the organization of information retrieved from influential search engines, particularly Google, has merely intensified mainstream perspectives because of the growing consolidation of the internet with traditional, commercial media sources. In this paper we describe an analysis of ‘first page’ results retrieved through Google searches about several common health concerns, each of which has been the subject of controversy as a result of uncertain aetiology, diagnoses, outcomes and/or contested approaches to treatment. Our findings suggest that the online search tactics used by most lay health information seekers produce sources of information that, for the most part, reflect mainstream biomedical discourses, often linked to commercial interests, rather than a plurality of voices that offer a variety of perspectives and resources. We discuss the implications for health-interested internet searchers who fail to look beyond the ‘first page’.     

Using video-stimulated recall to investigate teacher awareness of explicit and implicit gendered thoughts on classroom interactions

Teachers believe they don’t interact any differently with boys than with girls. However, an examination of the evidence base on gendered student–teacher interactions shows – at times contradicting – unequal interaction patterns for boys and girls. In this study, the videotaped lessons of 13 secondary school teachers in three schools are analysed by both the teachers themselves and the researchers. Video-stimulated recall is used to bring to the surface the thoughts, images and emotions that evoke teachers’ (re)actions in the classroom. Content analysis and thematic analysis of teachers’ recall reveal three things: (1) when recalling specific situations, gender imbalances in the thoughts and images that accompany teachers’ (re)actions come to the surface; (2) "video-stimulated recall" interviewing is a promising method to raise teacher awareness of these gendered thoughts and images; and (3) with a view to practitioners’ professional learning process, it is important for researchers to allow practitioners to co-investigate their practice.     

The well‐being of teachers in Flanders: the importance of a supportive school culture

Research on the well‐being of teachers was conducted at the request of the Department of Education in Flanders, Belgium. The goals were: (1) to construct an instrument for the Education Inspectorate; and (2) to conduct a survey in order to identify school‐related conditions relevant for teachers’ professional well‐being. Based on literature and panel discussions with teachers and principals, a questionnaire was constructed, tested and subdivided in subscales following a factor analysis. The questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of elementary (covering both nursery and primary schools, children aged 3–12) and secondary school teachers. A multilevel analysis reveals how differences in scores can be explained at school level.     

Including the Tukey Mean‐Difference (Bland–Altman) Plot in a Statistics Course

The Tukey mean‐difference plot, also called the Bland–Altman plot, is a recognized graphical tool in the exploration of biometrical data. We show that this technique deserves a place on an introductory statistics course by encouraging students to think about the kind of graph they wish to create, rather than just creating the default graph for the variables types they have. This graphical technique is described, and two examples are presented: one dealing with official agricultural data of Poland and the other one with an experiment on anorexia. Our opinion is that the plot is so easy and yet efficient in visualizing paired data that it should be included in statistics courses to support understanding and interpretation of data and their analysis. © 2014 The Authors. Teaching Statistics © 2014 Teaching Statistics Trust