Fostering Distributed Science Learning Through Collaborative Technologies

TACTICS (French and Spanish acronym standing for Collaborative Work and Learning in Science with Information and Communications Technologies) is an ongoing project aimed at investigating a distributed community of learning and practice in which information and communications technologies (ICT) take the role of collaborative tools to support social construction of knowledge. This community is composed of researchers, graduate students, and high-school teachers and their students, from six schools and four universities in Canada and Mexico. It set out in fall 2000 to develop a community around the general topic of integrating concepts in science school subjects. Once a prototype community is established, it can become a terrain where different aspects could be studied. Subsequently, researchers could gradually take a back seat allowing as well as ensuring the autonomy of the school members involved and, thereby, the viability of the learning community. The set up of the proposed prototype distributed science learning community was therefore an essential yet far from trivial first step. This paper discusses the process of setting up the community and the lessons learned.     

Young people in the argentine education system: Their inclusion and exclusion

Graduate in political sciences, University of El Salvador. Post-graduate in education and society, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO, Argentina). Co-ordinator for education and society, post-graduate professor of education and society and of the diploma in social sciences (educational management) for FLACSO. Invited post-graduate professor at the University of Bologna. Consultant to the OEI, CEPAL and INAP. Professor of educational policy at the National University of La Plata. Editor of the reviewPropuesta educativa [Educational offer].     

Exploring Spanish pre-service teachers’ talk in relation to ICT: balancing different expectations between the university and practicum school

Information and communications technology (ICT) now plays a prominent role in pre-service teacher education programmes across the globe. Despite this emphasis, research indicates that pre-service teachers’ use of ICT is often less than expected, even though they express positive opinions of its benefits. This study aimed to explore pre-service teachers’ views of ICT and consider the function of their expressed opinions. This longitudinal study, using one-to-one semi-structured interviews, was conducted with pre-service teachers on entry and on completion of a one-year Masters programme in Spain. The pre-service teachers held quite traditional views of teaching and learning, presenting teaching in an either–or manner – either ICT supported or non-ICT supported. They also spoke positively about ICT while simultaneously expressing reservations about it. The article argues that these contradictory positions may be a result of the need to navigate two competing environments, the higher education institution and the practicum school, where expectations of ICT use may differ. The article explores this performative function of their talk.     

Towards a new cartography of curriculum reform: Reflections on educational decentralization in Argentina

Curriculum reforms have led to discursive and organizational changes in Argentina. These reforms have reshaped school knowledge and institutional patterns of school administration. We analyse the process of this 'curriculum reterritorialization', the contradictions and displacements it produces, and the hybrid products that result from it. Reterritorialization is traced through four interrelated movements: the hybridization of discourses; the design of new maps of relations between the centre and the periphery of the educational system; the new 'regime of truth' that emerges out of these changes; and the role of the intellectual in educational reform. Although they are different in scope and magnitude, these movements provide the tools required to analyse the many ways in which curriculum reform is transforming Argentina's educational experiences.     

Analyzing beliefs and practices of a Mexican high school biology teacher

This article explores the beliefs and practices of a high school biology teacher through three interrelated theoretical frameworks: common knowledge, collaborative learning, and communities of practice. The data were obtained from an in‐depth case study of Maria, a biology teacher from a Mexican public high school that was participating in a 4‐year international science project using collaborative learning and information and communication technology. Her beliefs and practices were explored by means of questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews, and nonparticipant observation of classes. Through the use of the three‐component framework, the degrees of coherence between practice and beliefs that guide the teacher's daily behavior became apparent, as well as the difficulties of incorporating innovations due to institutional constraints. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 465–491, 2005     

The conceptual evolution of actual mathematical infinity

The different stages in the conceptual evolution of actual infinity are analyzed. We show how this concept occurs in high-school students at a prior, or at best, at the same level, as in Bernard Bolzano's conceptualization (as defined in his work The Paradoxes of Infinity). Furthermore, in terms of the historical development of the concept, the students' conceptualization has intra-objectal stage characteristics. Within the same framework, we show how Cantor's work fits into the inter-objectal stage, as well as presenting the difficulties encountered by students in order to reach this stage, given the current curricular structure. We conclude that such evidence should bring about a reconsideration of Piagetian ideas in education.     

Bolzano‘s Approach to the Paradoxes of Infinity: Implications for Teaching

In this paper we analyze excerpts of Paradoxes of the Infinite, the posthumous work of Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848), in order to show that Georg Cantor‘s (1845–1918) approach to the problem of defining actual mathematical infinity is not the most natural. In fact, Bolzano‘s approach to the paradoxes of infinity is more intuitive, while remaining internally coherent. Bolzano‘s approach, however, had limitations. We discuss implications for teaching, which include a better understanding of the responses of students to situations involving actual mathematical infinity, for it is possible to draw a kind of parallel between these responses and Bolzano‘s reasoning.