Different habitus: different strategies in teaching physics? Relationships between teachers’ social,economic and cultural capital and strategies in teaching physics in upper secondary school

With environmental awareness in the societies of today, political steering documents emphasize that all education should include sustainable development. But it seems to be others competing ideals for teaching physics, or why do the physics teachers teach as they do? Physics teachers in secondary school in Sweden have generally, been focused on facts and a strong link with scientific theories and concepts. In general, the curriculum sway the teaching, a standard text book in physics is used, the teaching is organized according to the book and the teacher deals with and demonstrates typical tasks on the whiteboard and group work is common for special issues related to tasks from the textbook or elaborating. The aim with this study is to analyze why physics teachers in upper secondary school choose to teach energy as they do. Data emerging from a questionnaire focused on indicators of the teachers’ cultural and economic assets, or capital, according to the work of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology. Especially his concept on life styles and habitus provide a tool for analysis. We focus on physics teachers’ positions in the social space, dispositions and standpoints towards the ideal way to teach physics in upper secondary school (n = 268). Our response rate is 29 % and due to the low response rate a non response bias analysis was made. In our analysis we primarily sought for groups, with a cluster analysis based on the teaching practice, revealed common features for both what and how they teach and three different teaching types emerged. Then we reconstructed the group habitus of the teachers by analyzing dispositions and standpoints and related those to the specific polarization of sacred values, that is struggles about the natural order (doxa) in the social space of science education, which is a part of and has boundaries to dominating fields like the natural sciences and the political fields (curriculum etc.). Three teacher-groups’ habituses are described and analyzed; (1) The Manager of the Traditional, (2) The Challenger for Technology and (3) The Challenger for Citizenship. By constructing the habitus of the teachers in the different groups we can explain why teachers teach as they do and thereby make a contribution to both science education research and to teaching training, whereas reflective approach which also includes the individual dispositions and representations are paramount. In our paper we elaborate the grounds and implications of these findings further.     

The educational legacy of Woodrow Wilson: from college to nation

This article investigates why there is no comprehensive education in Germany in contrast to most other European countries where comprehensive education in various forms was introduced, especially after the Second World War. The article will proceed by assessing established assumptions of this German peculiarity and put forward a new comparative theory of why Germany maintained a selective, tripartite system.     

The Structure of Preschoolers’ Emotion Knowledge: Model Equivalence and Validity Using a Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Research Findings: A theory-based 2-factor structure of preschoolers’ emotion knowledge (i.e., recognition of emotional expression and understanding of emotion-eliciting situations) was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Compared to 1- and 3-factor models, the 2-factor model showed a better fit to the data. The model was found to be equivalent for gender, race, age, and socioeconomic risk. Theory and the high correlation between the 2 latent factors suggested a hierarchical nature of development, in which a higher level of emotion knowledge is built upon a lower level. In our validity model, we found significant paths from the recognition to the situation factor and from the situation factor to teachers’ reports of preschoolers’ learning behaviors and social competence. Results provide further evidence of the significant role emotion plays in preschoolers’ school readiness. Practice or Policy: Early childhood educators can benefit from knowing that recognition of expressions and understanding of emotion-eliciting situations are appropriately teachable in this age range and can focus such teaching upon negative emotions and those that may vary across individuals. Furthermore, relations between these aspects of emotion knowledge and school readiness add to accumulating evidence that early childhood programming focusing upon emotion knowledge has multiple benefits.     

A card game for designing activities for technology-enhanced learning in higher education

Education and Information Technologies - The importance of providing mechanisms and tools that effectively support the transition from implicit to explicit representations of Learning Design has...     

Connecting characterizations of equivalence of expressions: design research in Grade 5 by bridging graphical and symbolic representations

Educational Studies in Mathematics - One typical challenge in algebra education is that many students justify the equivalence of expressions only by referring to transformation rules that they...     

Antecedents and Consequences of Emotion Regulation in STEM Degree Programs

Innovative Higher Education - There to date exists limited research on how emotion regulation shapes students’ emotional experiences and academic development in higher education. The purpose...     

Improving the teaching of the arts： Pre-service teacher self-efficacy towards arts education

Arts education is an essential component of a comprehensive education, requiring highly skilled teachers to achieve quality arts integration （Andrews, 2004）. It equips students with skills necessary for the 21st century workforce, allowing nations to develop the human resources necessary to tap their cultural capital （UNESCO, 2006）. A world trend however suggests that arts teaching by pre-service teachers is subject to lack of confdence, motivation and knowledge （Henessy, Rolfe ＆ Chedoy, 2001; Russell-Bowie, 2004）. Greater recognition of confirming and disconfirming experiences that shape pre-service teachers＇ self-efficacy beliefs for arts education is necessary. This paper provides insights into a research project that attempts to contribute towards filling this void in order to improve teacher effectiveness in the arts domain. After the first semester of teacher training, pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire based on their personal teaching beliefs for instructional design, student engagement and classroom management in arts education. Findings provide a greater understanding of how pre-service teachers regulate their own behaviour for teaching the arts, acting as validation beliefs of capabilities.     

Hepatitis B

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