Urban High School Student Engagement Through CincySTEM iTEST Projects

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This paper focuses on the notable heightening of underrepresented students’ engagement in STEM education through project-based learning CincySTEM...     

Use of site-based microcomputers for instructional support: the multi-year experience

It has been said that a school that does not emphasise technology will miseducate students for the future. Many informed observers believe that to achieve this emphasis, it is very important for the principal and his/her assistants to act as role models (for the use of information technology). The use of school-based microcomputers for instructional support provides an excellent opportunity for them to do so. All too often, however, the promises of technological innovation are not delivered upon. After briefly reviewing the procedure for selecting the most appropriate system, this presentation will compare and contrast the multi-year experiences of high schools in one of the largest school districts in Canada. The experiences of these schools indicate that for this significant application of technology, the promises are realizable. The paper will conclude by discussing issues and challenges relating to the use of school-based microcomputers for instructional support.     

An innovative model for collaborative reform in Elementary School Science Teaching

This article received the Innovations in Teaching Science Teachers award at the 1996 meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science. The award is made possible by Delta Education.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. TPE-9050015). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.     

Reframing quality and impact: The place of theory in education research

In March 2004, Stephen Ball and others presented a symposium at the conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) on the necessity of theory in educational research. Like Ball, I have observed that theory, not just social theory, is a difficult space and one that divides researchers (those comfortable with theory and those less so), within educational research. It is an aspect of educational research training that rarely receives the attention essential for ‘quality’ educational research. In the context of the contemporary research assessment exercises, it is worth reflecting on the relationship between research informed by social theory and expectations of quality and impact. In this paper I revisit the argument made by Ball and others for the necessity of theory, and discuss its role in framing research questions, informing analysis, and promoting reflexivity on the significance and relevance of research. I illustrate this process by discussing the ways theory can assist in the generation of research agendas and questions. I conclude the paper with an example of how a team of educational researchers from Australia, UK and New Zealand have made use of social theory to inform an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project investigating the recontextualisation of health knowledge in schools.     

Student Teachers’ Beliefs and a Changing Teacher Role

This article discusses the encounters between the changing expectations on the teacher role, teacher education and Swedish student teachers’ beliefs about their role as teachers, with special emphasis on the socialisation process of the pupils and the teacher's possible influence on it. The discussion is based on two empirical studies among Swedish compulsory school student teachers (M. von Wright, (1996) Propedeusis? Om motet mellan lärarstuderande och lärarutbildningen, in: Grundskollärarutbüdningen 1995. En utvärdering. Högskoleverkets rapportserie 1996:1 R.; M. von Wright (1997) Socialisationsprocessen. Metaforer och synsätt hos blivande lärare. Licentiatuppsats. Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm). The results show that student teachers when they enter their education on the one hand tend to carry with them explicit expectations which strongly reflect the values of what is considered pedagogically correct. At the same time students express implicit beliefs and underlying conceptions of human development, which in many cases are incoherent. During teacher education the pedagogically correct beliefs might become replaced, but implicit beliefs as affinity to certain pedagogical discourses are not changed or brought to awareness unless they are seriously challenged and problematised. Yet these beliefs direct the students’ attention. Changing demands on the teacher role bring about expectations on a shift in thinking about teaching and learning. Teacher education and educators can play important roles in making the students aware of their everyday beliefs and eventually change them.     

Effect of film-mediated intensive instruction on basic problem-solving skills of ninth graders

How can junior high students sharpen thetr problem-solving skills? Can they be taught to observe accurately, analyze variables, and then generate a hypothesis? A number of approaches to this problem have been tried experimentally. In this study, ninth graders in two experimental groups watched a filmloop from Suchman’s Inquiry Development Program repeatedly until they could name 75 details or generate 5 hypotheses. The control and experimental groups then watched three more filmloops and were tested on both number and quality of details named, questions asked, and hypotheses generated. The assessment was repeated more than a year later with different filmloops. The results suggest that instruction in cue attendance, and perhaps hypotheses generation, would benefit junior high school students, not only immediately, but also in the long run.     

Improving the pedagogy of Islamic religious education through an application of critical religious education,variation theory and the learning study model

This study presents a new theoretical and pedagogical framework based on the theories of Critical Religious Education (CRE), Variation Theory (VT) and the Learning Study model with the purpose of improving teaching and learning in Islamic Religious Education (IRE). It reports a Learning Study conducted in a secondary girls Muslim school in London on the topic of ‘Islam and being Muslim’. The aim of this research study is to examine if and how the proposed framework can be applied to IRE lessons, and how it affects the students’ learning. Thirty students of two seventh grade classes and their religious education teacher participated in the study. The data was collected through interviews and written tasks with the students before and after their participation in the study, video-recordings of the research lessons, and meetings with the teacher. Phenomenography and VT were utilised in the analysis of the data. The results suggest that the use of CRE, VT and Learning Study in teaching Islam contributes to students’ learning outcomes by means of helping teacher consider students’ diverse perspectives on religious phenomena when planning and implementing the curricular content, increasing students’ awareness of the ontological and epistemological dimensions of their faith as well as allowing them to make informed judgments about religious phenomena.     

Negative student emotions and educator skill in experiential education: a taxonomy of classroom activities

Higher Education - Experiential teaching practices can provide transformative learning opportunities for students. However, thus far the experiential education literature considers...     

Promoting Equity,Diversity and Social Justice Through Faculty-Led Transformative Projects

Innovative Higher Education - We present a transformative professional development project with a focus on equity, diversity and social justice (EDSJ) to raise cultural awareness among faculty,...