A Conceptual Model (The Six Mirrors of the Classroom) and It’s Application to Teaching and Learning About Microorganisms

In this paper a conceptual model of instruction “the six mirrors of the classroom” used as a frame for teaching a learning topic, the microorganisms are depicted. The paper consists of four sections: (a) the six mirrors of the classroom model (SMC); (b) the SMC as implemented in the expository and cooperative modes of instruction in classrooms and results; (c) a “Journey of Inquiry into the Wonderful World of Microorganisms” (JIWWM), developed according to the Science–Technology–Environment–Peace–Society (STEPS) approach; and (d) teaching and learning the JIWWM, in ninth-grade classes, within the SMC model. The results show that science topic can be taught in the frame of the mirrors of the classroom. When the instructional goals of the teachers used the mirror “1, classroom organization” and mirror “6, pupils’ social behavior” and the third ring around the all six mirrors cooperative skills were practiced, academic outcomes were achieved, and attitudes toward environmental preservation and peace improved. The SMC model can serve as a valuable tool for teachers, since it can design their teaching and learning settings in a more controlled environment, in terms of objectives, teachers’ and students’ social behaviors, and academic outcomes.     

Critical Literacy for Young Citizens: First Graders Investigate the First Thanksgiving

In this piece, we share a story about the power of historical investigation as a means of developing critical literacy in young children. Drawing on the work of VanSledright (Social Educ 68:230, 2004), we outline four aspects of historical thinking as they relate to the development of critically minded citizens. We then turn to a discussion of a first-grade lesson on the First Thanksgiving Feast, reflect on the meanings children took from this experience, and explore possible implications and extensions.     

“Here the Scientists Explain What I Said.” Coordination Practices Elicited During the Enactment of the Results and Discussion Sections of Adapted Primary Literature

Adapted primary literature (APL) is a novel text genre that retains the authentic characteristics of primary literature. Learning through APL represents an educational intervention with an authentic scientific context. In this case study, we analyzed the 80-min discourse developed during the enactment of an article from an APL-based curriculum in biotechnology in one class, and examined epistemic practices used by students during their meaning-making of the Results and Discussion sections of the article. Specifically, we examined coordination practices, by which students connected elements belonging to different epistemic status or context (theory, data, experimental stages, biotechnological applications and text). The application of coordination practices was identified more than 70 times during the lesson. In the context of the Results section, the students displayed research-oriented coordination practices, which were frequently associated with claims of comprehension difficulty. In the context of the Discussion section, students displayed text-oriented coordination practices, associated with analysis of the text characteristics. We are suggesting that the research-oriented coordination practices and some of the text-oriented ones enabled the emergence of authentic scientific practices and learning by inquiry. Another type of text-oriented coordination practice enabled reflection on scientists’ experimental processes, enabling learning science as inquiry. The enactment model of APL used here allowed for both the emergence of the two dimensions of inquiry learning and the promotion of scientific literacy in the fundamental and derived senses.     

Supporting Teaching and Learning Using Authentic Scientific Texts: A Rejoinder to Danielle J. Ford

In her commentary Danielle J. Ford mainly focused on three issues that highlight the promises and challenges for the use of Adapted Primary Literature (APL) in science curricula: the possible contribution of APL to authentic experiences in secondary schools, implementation issues of APL including the support required for the teachers, and the possibilities to extend the use of APL to younger and older students. In this rejoinder, we first offer some general comments on Ford’s commentary. Then we offer more specific comments on two areas of her response, authenticity and the support for teachers.     

基于GIS的安阳旅游地理信息系统研究

以旅游地理信息系统在旅游业中的强大功能及广泛应用为出发点,阐述了安阳旅游地理信息系统的设计过程,以及围绕以旅游信息为主题的地理信息系统的相关研究和探索。     

The impact of a professional development model on middle school science teachers' efficacy and implementation of inquiry

This study investigated a professional development model designed to improve teachers' inquiry teaching efficacy as well as the quality of their inquiry instruction through engaging teachers in practice-teaching and reflection sessions. The programme began with a two-week summer Institute focused on both inquiry pedagogy and science content and continued with academic year support for participants' inquiry implementation. An inquiry teaching efficacy instrument was administered 3 times to 25 teacher participants to gauge changes in their personal self-efficacy and outcome expectancy across 5 essential features of classroom inquiry. To examine actual practices, pre/post classroom observations of the teachers' inquiry enactments were evaluated using a quality of inquiry observation protocol. Following the summer Institute, teachers had statistically significant increases in their self-efficacy for teaching inquiry in four of the five essential features and increases in one of the five essential features for outcome expectancy. Teachers' quality of inquiry teaching also increased after the professional development programme. We discuss implications of this PD model for moving teachers towards implementation of new instructional techniques as well as the influence of a supportive school community on teachers’ efficacy with inquiry instruction.     

研究性学习在中学数学教学中的体现与应用探析

广义研究性学习既是一种学习观,又是一种课程观.中学数学教学中的研究性学习,实质是在社会建构主义教育观下,学生自主学习数学知识并形成能力的过程.研究性学习并不是否定接受式学习与讲授式教学.作为一种学习观,研究性学习体现了“学生为本、学生发展为本、发展学生创新能力为本”的教学理念.     

A mixed methods comparison of teachers' lunar modeling lesson implementation and student learning outcomes

The authors compare three teachers' adaptations and implementation of a lunar modeling lesson to explain marked differences in student learning outcomes on a spatial-scientific lunar assessment. They used a modified version of the Practices of Science Observation Protocol (P-SOP; Forbes, Biggers, &; Zangori, 2013 Forbes C., Biggers, M., &; Zangori, L. (2013). Investigating essential characteristics of scientific practices in elementary science learning environments: The practices of science observation protocol (P-SOP). School Science and Mathematics, 113, 180–190.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) to identify ways in which features of inquiry were emphasized in each classroom. Additionally, classroom communities of practice were categorized as task-based or practice-based (Riel &; Polin, 2004 Riel, M. &; Polin, L. (2004). Learning communities: Common ground and critical differences in designing technical support. In S. Barab, R. Kling, &; J. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 16–52). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). The authors found that student learning outcomes were related to the fidelity with which the teachers implemented the lesson. Teachers with higher P-SOP scores fostered more of a practice-based learning community than task-based one, which also paralleled greater student learning gains. Although the students' scores did not differ by teacher on the preassessment, they did differ significantly on the postassessment, indicating that the curricular choices and learning communities developed by the teachers impacted what students were able to learn.     

在中华文化背景下开展基于问题式学习的探究

本文通过对基于问题的学习(Problem-Based Learning,简称PBL)的分析,认为这种在西方兴起的教学方式非常有助于促进学生的自主学习、终身学习;但从其实质看,PBL是个案研究性学习的一种形式,本身也有一些不足。本文力求在中华文化背景下,为更加有效的发挥PBL的实际效果,提出完善PBL教学的方法,从而让学生在真实的情境中,获得真正的意义建构,实现素质教育的目标。     

探究式教学设计的思路分析

教学设计是根据教学对象和教学目标,确定合适的教学起点与终点,将教学诸要素有序、优化地安排。形成教学方案的过程。随着新课程标准的提出与实施,如何培养和提高学生的探究能力,就显得十分迫切与必要。文章对探究式教学的理论基础进行了研究,并以《种子的萌发》一节为例进行教学设计,培养学生根据问题提出假设,动手实验收集资料,继而根据实验结果验证假设,最后得出结论这一探究过程,来充分发挥学生的主动性,提高学生的探究能力。