Lesson study for accessible science: Building expertise to improve practice in inclusive science classrooms

The Lesson Study for Accessible Science (LSAS) project created middle school teams comprised of both science and special education teachers who engaged in collaborative work to improve instruction in inclusive classrooms. The intervention is based on Lesson Study, a professional development approach that originated in Japan, which supports the systematic examination of practice and student understanding. Using an experimental design, teams of teachers were randomly assigned to the LSAS intervention or to a wait‐list comparison group. The results of this study suggest that science and special educators in the LSAS intervention were able to generate more accommodations for students with learning disabilities, and they increased their ability to set an instructional context and adapt an instructional plan to meet science learning goals for all students in an inclusive classroom. They did not, however, show significant increases in their knowledge of science content or learning disabilities. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1012–1034, 2012     

Separating the research question from the laboratory techniques: Advancing high‐school biology teachers' ability to ask research questions

Inquiry is essentially a process in which research questions are asked and an attempt is made to find the answers. However, the formulation of operational research questions of the sort used in authentic scientific inquiry is not a trivial task. Here, we set out to explore the possible influence of separating the research question from the laboratory techniques used to try and answer this question on teachers' understanding of laboratory techniques and their ability to formulate research questions. We conducted a laboratory course in microbiology in which the laboratory techniques were presented in an explicit and generalized manner, in the context of specific research questions. During the course, teachers' understanding of laboratory techniques improved as reflected in their answers to exercises given throughout. In addition, teachers' ability to ask research questions, analyzed using Dillon's classification of research questions, also improved. When reflecting upon the course, some teachers attributed the change in their ability to ask research questions to their increased knowledge of techniques, whereas others did not. We conclude that to facilitate research‐question‐asking skills among teachers, they should be provided with knowledge of the relevant laboratory techniques in an explicit fashion. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1296–1320, 2012     

A retrospective view of a study of middle school science curriculum materials: Implementation,scale‐up,and sustainability in a changing policy environment

This article provides an extended, comprehensive example of how teachers, schools, districts, and external factors (e.g., parental pressure and policy mandates) shape curriculum research in the U.S. It retrospectively examines how three different middle school curriculum units were implemented and scaled‐up in a large, diverse school system. The curriculum materials were cognitively based, hands‐on, guided inquiry units; each focused on a different “big idea” in science. The units met some criteria for instructional strategies rated by the Project 2061 Curriculum Analysis. Using evidence‐based decisions, two of the units were found to be effective and equitable, and went to scale, but one was not effective. However, the course of scale‐up was also affected by a changing policy climate, and proceeded in unpredictable ways, with small scale effects not found at large scale, and experienced teachers less effective than inexperienced teachers. Four years after funding ended, none of the units were sustained within the school district. The interactions between the demands of the units and of the school district's policy environment suggests reasons why this occurred, despite evidence that two of the units were successful with diverse learners. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 305–332, 2012     

Understanding the co‐construction of inquiry practices: A case study of a responsive teaching environment

We set out to understand how different instantiations of inquiry emerged in two different years of one elementary teacher's classroom. Longitudinal observations from Mrs. Charles' 5th grade science classroom forced us to carefully and deliberately consider who exactly was responsible for the change in the class activities and norms. We provide empirical evidence to show how a focus on the teacher can easily overlook the complex dynamics of the classroom. The data reveal that students had a substantive and generative role in the class's arrival at the different instantiations of scientific inquiry—the nature and form of inquiry—that were constructed each year. We argue that, in an environment where a teacher carefully attends and responds to student thinking, the nascent resources students have for reasoning about phenomena can affect not only the conceptual ideas that emerge, but also influence what inquiry activities or practices become established as normative and productive over time. Our work with Mrs. Charles illuminates an important methodological concern with research on teacher development as well as the construct of teacher learning progressions; research accounts that focus primarily on the teacher may overlook the classroom norms that are negotiated between teacher and student, and thereby provide an incomplete portrayal of the teacher's activity within one classroom and the teacher's progress across multiple years. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 429–464, 2012     

Using self‐generated analogies in teaching of thermodynamics

Using self‐generated analogies has been proposed as a method in a constructivist tradition for students to learn about a new subject, by use of what they previously know. We report on a group exercise on using self‐generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes, reversible adiabatic expansion and free adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. The participants (N = 8) were physics preservice teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. A main finding was that work with self‐generated analogies tended to be accompanied by the students assuming ownership for their learning, manifested in terms of actions of choice and control and the use of exploratory talk. Consequently, several self‐generated analogies were elaborated and developed to a high‐order relational structure. However, we also found that with the use of self‐generated analogies in science teaching follows the risks of developing idiosyncratic explanations of the encountered phenomena or getting stuck in overly complex comparisons. Sammanfattning: Självgenererade analogier har förts fram som en metod i en konstruktivistisk tradition för att elever och studenter ska kunna lära sig något nytt genom att relatera till vad de redan vet. Vi redogör här för en gruppövning där självgenererade analogier användes för att förstå två termodynamiska processer: reversibel adiabatisk expansion, respektive fri adiabatisk expansion av en ideal gas. Åtta (N = 8) lärarstudenter på fjärde året av utbildningen med inriktning mot fysik på gymnasiet deltog i studien. Ett viktigt resultat var att vid arbete med självgenererade analogier tenderade studenterna att ta ägandeskap för sitt lärande, vilket tog sig uttryck i handlingar såsom aktiva val, kontroll över processen och explorativ dialog. Som en följd utvecklades flera av de självgenererade analogierna till ett stort strukturellt djup. Samtidigt såg vi att vid skapande av egna analogier löper studenter risken att utveckla egna förklaringar av de studerade fenomenen som inte svarar mot dem inom vetenskapen eller snärja in sig i alltför komplexa jämförelser. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 898–921, 2012     

Trainee Change through Teacher Training: A case study in training English language teachers in Spain

In the course of giving greater importance to trainees' previous knowledge about and experience of teaching and learning foreign languages, the role of teacher training courses as agents of change has recently been questioned. Through a research project reported in this article I tried to find out to what extent two teacher training courses I was recently involved in caused trainees to change their points of view in relation to some of the fundamental issues involved in teaching. Special attention was given to the sources of these modifications, particularly to the role that teaching practice plays in them.     

Conditions affecting the usefulness of pre- and post-tests for assessment purposes

Interest in measuring and evaluating student learning in higher education is growing. There are many tools available to assess student learning. However, the use of such tools may be more or less appropriate under various conditions. This study provides some evidence related to the appropriate use of pre/post‐tests. The question of whether graded tests elicit a higher level of performance (better representation of actual learning gains) than ungraded post‐tests is examined. We examine whether the difficulty level of the questions asked (knowledge/comprehension vs. analysis/application) affects this difference. We test whether the student’s level in the degree programme affects this difference. Results indicate that post‐tests may not demonstrate the full level of student mastery of learning objectives and that both the difficulty level of the questions asked and the level of students in their degree programme affect the difference between graded and ungraded assessments. Some of these differences may be due to causes other than grades on the assessments. Students may have benefited from the post‐test, as a review of the material, or from additional studying between the post‐test and the final examination. Results also indicate that pre‐tests can be useful in identifying appropriate changes in course materials over time.     

Updating formulae for the sample covariance and correlation

This article provides an easy derivation of updating formulae for the sample covariance and, by extension, for the Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient.     

Becoming a lecturer in further education in England: the construction of professional identity and the role of communities of practice

Further education colleges in England offer a wide range of post‐school education and training provision. Recently they have undergone major transformations that have resulted in considerable changes to the work of those teaching in them. In this paper we examine how cultures of learning and teaching in colleges are affected and how the nature of professional identity has changed. The paper considers the formation of professional identity amongst a group of trainee lecturers completing a one‐year full‐time teacher‐training course at a university in the English Midlands. Lave and Wenger's work on apprenticeship to communities of practice is used to examine the effect of trainees' teaching placement on the development of professional identity. Rather than identifying effective processes of increasing participation in existing communities of practice, a strong sense of marginalisation and alienation amongst trainees was observed. The paper argues that this is detrimental both to trainees and experienced lecturers if they are to actively engage in building new forms of professionalism for the future.     

元上都扈从诗文献价值成因分析

元上都扈从诗具有重要的文献价值。作者大多数是扈从大臣,具有很强的社会责任感和使命感;他们的创作视角广阔,给后人提供了了解那个时代形象、具体的素材;其作品多属于纪行诗的范畴,具有一定的客观性;扈从诗作者"自注"具有不可替代的文献价值,扈从诗也与这些作者的其他作品形成互补关系;客观上,像舞蹈等文化形态,诗歌形象描绘的表象方式也恰能使后人准确了解其具体风貌。这些因素,一起构成了元上都扈从诗巨大的文献价值。