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Distribution by Scientific Domains
Education80%

Selected Abstracts

Enacting reform-based science materials: The range of teacher enactments in reform classrooms,,

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 3 2005
Rebecca M. Schneider
To promote large-scale science education reform, developers must create innovations that teachers can use to learn and enact new practices. As part of an urban systemic reform effort, science materials were designed to reflect desired reforms and to support teacher thinking by addressing necessary content, pedagogy, and pedagogical content knowledge for teachers. The goal of this research was to describe teachers' enactments in comparison to reform as instantiated in the materials. Four middle school teachers' initial enactment of an inquiry-based science unit on force and motion were analyzed. Findings indicate two teachers' enactments were consistent with intentions and two teachers' enactments were not. However, enactment ratings for the first two were less reflective of curriculum intent when challenges were greatest, such as when teachers attempted to present challenging science ideas, respond to students' ideas, structure investigations, guide small-group discussions, or make adaptations. Overall, findings suggest that purposefully using materials with detailed lesson descriptions and specific, consistent supports for teacher thinking can help teachers with enactment. However, materials alone are not sufficient; reform efforts must include professional development and efforts to create systemic change in context and policy to support teacher learning and classroom enactment. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 283,312, 2005 [source]

Social relationships and friendships among young people with Down's syndrome in secondary schools

BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, Issue 2 2002
Pat Cuckle
More young people with Down's syndrome are being taught in mainstream schools and interest in the educational aspect of inclusion has grown over the last few years. In this article Pat Cuckle, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, and June Wilson, a support teacher working for Education Leeds, explore patterns of friendship and social relationships among teenagers with Down's syndrome. The young people who took part in the study either attend mainstream schools or resourced provision in mainstream schools. The enquiry provides fascinating insights into the participants' views of friendship and into the range of their social experiences. Pat Cuckle and June Wilson conclude their report with a set of recommendations focusing on the need to create more opportunity for social interaction for young people with special needs. [source]

How Do We Know?: Students Examine Issues of Credibility With a Complicated Multimodal Web-Based Text

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 2 2009
Mark Baildon
ABSTRACT As reading continues to become governed by a spatial "logic of the image" rather than strictly a temporal or linear logic of written language (Kress, 2003), and readers increasingly engage with a range of Internet-based texts, a host of challenges ensue for educators and students alike. One of the most vexing of these challenges deals with discernments of credibility. Determining the credibility of multimodal texts, especially on/within the Internet with its "vast network of relations of credibility" (Burbules & Callister, 2000), is particularly challenging because these texts mix images, music, graphic arts, video, and print to make sophisticated claims supported by various forms or types of evidence. This article examines how a group of ninth-grade students grappled with issues of credibility after viewing the controversial Internet video, Loose Change, a well-documented and comprehensive multimedia account that argues the "real story" of September 11 was covered up by the U.S. government. Findings from the study highlight the range of knowledge and literacy practices students mobilized to "read" the video and the challenges they experienced reading and evaluating the video as a multimodal text. Implications of this work point to the need to consider epistemological issues and further develop tools that can support teachers and students in critically assessing multimodal texts. [source]

In search of well-started beginning science teachers: Insights from two first-year elementary teachers

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 6 2010
Lucy Avraamidou
Abstract The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore what aspects of two first-year elementary teachers' practices were most consistent with an inquiry-based approach, what PCK served as a mechanism for facilitating these practices, and what experiences have mediated the nature and development of these teachers' PCK. For each of the participants data included audio-recorded interviews, video-recorded classroom observations, lesson plans, and samples of student work. Data analysis illustrated that both participants engaged their students in question-driven investigations, the use of observational data, making connections between evidence and claims, and communicating those claims to others. Moreover, there was clear evidence in the findings of the study that a considerable degree of coherence existed between the two participants' knowledge on one hand and their instructional practices on the other hand. The participants perceived specific learning experiences during their programs as being critical to their development. The contribution of this study lies in the fact that it provides examples of well-started beginning elementary teachers implementing inquiry-based science in 2nd and 5th grade classrooms. Implications of the study include the need for the design of university-based courses and interventions by which teacher preparation and professional development programs support teachers in developing PCK for scientific inquiry and enacting instructional practices that are congruent with reform initiatives. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:661,686, 2010 [source]

RAS kite-marks free resources

ASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS, Issue 5 2007
Article first published online: 20 SEP 200
As part of its Education Programme, writes Andrew Morrison, the RAS is setting up a database of free resources to support teachers in delivering the astronomy, space and geophysics sections of the school curriculum. [source]