The effects of a short-term professional development program on physical education teachers’ behaviour and students’ engagement in learning

This study examined the effect of a short-term training programme οn in-service physical education teachers’ behaviour and students’ engagement in learning. Teachers (n = 32) were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Each teacher’s behaviour was observed in six lessons; two for each measurement (pre, post and retention) and analysed with qualitative dimensions of lesson introduction, task presentations and lesson closure. Student engagement was analysed with the time analysis form. The total and successful attempts of selected students were also recorded. The experimental group attended a two-hour lecture followed by a two-hour practicum, and showed significant improvement and learning of all the examined behaviours as well as significantly higher performance than the control group. Also, students of the experimental teacher group presented significantly greater activity time, more practice attempts and more successful ones than their peers in the control group. The results establish the effect of the training programme on teacher behaviour and student engagement in learning.     

Reading nonfiction text on an iPad in a secondary classroom

The intent of this research was to investigate the experiences of eighth grade readers as they read nonfiction text on an iPad for academic purposes. We investigated reading strategies that students use to support their reading as well as what role iPad features played in the reading process. New literacies, metacognition and transactional theories informed the framework. Multiple data sources were used to triangulate findings and included (a) retrospective think alouds, (b) student iPad survey, (c) pre and post study student interviews, (d) Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory and (e) student observations. Data for the collective case study participants focused on the identification of proficient readers who displayed confidence, competency, and control over text. Themes identified in the collective case studies included (a) reading comprehension strategies, (b) nonfiction features and (c) iPad features to support their reading of nonfiction on the iPad.     

Motivational mechanisms and schedule-induced behavioral stereotypy

In two experiments, behavioral stereotypies elicited by scheduled presentations of food and water were compared. In Experiment 1, pigeons were exposed to a fixed-time 30-sec (FT 30-sec) schedule of food or water deliveries with a brightening keylight stimulus signaling time to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) on each trial. Food and water presentations both produced terminal autoshaped keypecking that was similarly distributed in the trial but differed in response topography and persistence. Locomotor interim behavior was different in the two motivational conditions: With food presentations, it consisted of a “retreat” to the rear of the chamber after UCS termination, followed by “pacing” in the midportion of trials. The water schedule produced very little locomotor activity with no regular distribution in the trial. Experiment 2, using a random-time 30-sec (RT 30-sec) schedule, showed that the differences in interim locomotor behavior persisted in the absence of temporal predictability of the UCS and the keypecking terminal response. The results are taken to support Timberlake’s (1983a) behavior-system theory.     

The effects of a developmentally appropriate music and movement program on motor performance

Basic motor skills development is achieved through the implementation of different types of physical education programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate and to compare the effect of a developmentally appropriate music and movement program and of a developmentally appropriate physical education program on the development of jumping and dynamic balance in children ages 4–6 years. Ninety children, 42 girls and 48 boys, participated. Fifty of them were in an experimental group and followed the music and movement program, which lasted 2 months. The rest served as the control group and followed the physical education program, for the same period of time. Children's level in jumping and dynamic balance was assessed with the MOT 4–6 [Zimmer, R. & Volkamer, M. (1987). Motoriktest fuer vier-bis sechsjaehrige kinder. Manual, Belz: Weinheim]. Data were analyzed with the multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures. The results showed that the experimental group improved significantly in both jumping and dynamic balance. It can be concluded that a developmentally appropriate music and movement program can positively affect jumping and dynamic balance of preschool children.     

Professional knowledge learned and professional knowledge applied: A case study of two trainee English teachers

This article reports on one strand of a collaborative research project undertaken at the Faculty of Education, which sought to explore trainee teachers' development of assessment understandings and practices during their PGCE, and over the following two years. Using two case studies of English trainees, we explore the ways in which they seek to bring together effective assessment principles embedded in the research literatures they encountered in their training with the classroom focused, 'tried and tested' approaches in their placement schools. The resulting demands on professional knowledge 'pure' and 'applied', and some resulting tensions are investigated though interviews with the trainees concerned.     

From Young Children’s Ideas about Germs to Ideas Shaping a Learning Environment

This paper is concerned with highlighting young children’s ideas about the nature, location and appearance of germs, as well as their reasoning strands about germs’ ontological category and biological functions. Moreover, it is concerned with exploring how all these could be taken into account for shaping a potentially fruitful learning environment. Conducting individual, semi-structured interviews with 35 preschoolers (age 4.5–5.5) of public kindergartens in the broader area of Patras, we attempted to trace their ideas about what germs are, where they may be found, whether they are good or bad and living or non-living and how they might look like in a drawing. Moreover, children were required to attribute a series of biological functions to dogs, chairs and germs, and finally to create a story with germs holding a key-role. The analysis of our qualitative data within the “NVivo” software showed that the informants make a strong association of germs with health and hygiene issues, locate germs mostly in our body and the external environment, are not familiar with the ‘good germs’-idea, and draw germs as ‘human-like’, ‘animal-like’ or ‘abstract’ entities. Moreover, they have significant difficulties not only in employing biological functions as criteria for classifying germs in the category of ‘living’, but also in just attributing such functions to germs using a warrant. Finally, the shift from our findings to a 3-part learning environment aiming at supporting preschoolers in refining their initial conceptualization of germs is thoroughly discussed in the paper.     

Conceptions of assessment: trainee teachers' practice and values

This study examines the values and practice in relation to assessment of a sample of 220 trainee teachers studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, an initial teacher training and education (ITET) course, at the University of Cambridge, UK. The survey instrument was drawn from James and Pedder (2006 James, M. and Pedder, D. 2006. Beyond method: Assessment and learning practices and values. The Curriculum Journal, 17(2): 109–138. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), and was composed of questionnaire items that sought to elicit how trainees valued different classroom assessment practices, and the extent to which their own teaching complied with such values. The study draws additionally on the findings of James and Pedder (2006 James, M. and Pedder, D. 2006. Beyond method: Assessment and learning practices and values. The Curriculum Journal, 17(2): 109–138. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) to compare and contrast results with those for qualified teachers. Item and factor analyses revealed three dimensions that underpin trainees' classroom practice and values (promoting learning autonomy, performance orientation, making learning explicit). Values-practice gaps were greatest on promoting learning autonomy and performance orientation. Trainees valued practices associated with the former more than they implemented them in their teaching, while they implemented practices associated with the latter more than predicted by their values. Values-practice gaps suggested that trainees were constrained from implementing their values to a greater extent than qualified teachers, particularly with respect to these two factors.     

English secondary students’ thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent,comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just ‘an idea someone has’

Teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is seen as a priority for science education in many national contexts. The present paper focuses on one central issue in learning about NOS: understanding the nature and status of scientific theories. A key challenge in teaching about NOS is to persuade students that scientific knowledge is generally robust and reliable, yet also in principle always open to challenge and modification. Theories play a central role, as they are a form of conjectural knowledge that over time may be abandoned, replaced, modified, yet sometimes become well established as current best scientific understanding. The present paper reports on findings from interviews with 13–14 year olds in England where target knowledge presents theories as ‘consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world’. Student thinking reflected a two-tier typology of scientific knowledge in which largely unsupported imaginative ideas (‘theories’) became transformed into fairly definitive knowledge (such as laws) through relatively straightforward testing. These results are considered in relation to research into intellectual development which indicates that effective teaching in this area requires careful scaffolding of student learning, but has potential to contribute to supporting intellectual development across the curriculum.     

‘Out of the Box’ leadership: action research towards school improvement

The contribution of Action Research (AR) to school improvement is well-documented. This study records the accounts of two primary school leaders, involved in AR projects that focused on the development of students’ oral communication skills. Drawing data from diaries with fieldnotes and systematic reflections, the study presents leaders’ experiences, as they translated feedback into modifications and redefinitions to bring about change. Despite difficulties encountered, the leaders acknowledged the value of collaborative school-based enquiry for teachers, students and themselves, mainly reflecting notions of catalytic and democratic validity. The paper highlights that AR as a tool for individual and school improvement, can enhance understandings of school performance and empower participants to focus on school outcomes in an educational context that does not implement accountability measures. AR can certainly help principals in Cyprus reconceptualise and rediscover their pedagogical role as instructional leaders to improve teaching and learning. Yet, to address outcome and process validity, the paper argues about the need for evaluative tools.